


The Passionate Shepherd

by Roxfreeze



Category: Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 5 - Fandom
Genre: AU where Nero and the Spardas aren't related, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Death, Animal Transformation, Dessert & Sweets, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Reflections, cait sith! Nero, cooking Youtuber! Dante!, mentions of animal abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2020-03-07 23:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18883690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roxfreeze/pseuds/Roxfreeze
Summary: After Nero's defeat in a battle against a mysterious, evil black cat, he loses power and is badly injured. He faints in front of a house, wakes up to a man in red nursing him back to health. He thinks he's lucky, not knowing that they're destined to find and help each other out of the biggest struggle in their lives.





	1. Tiramisu

**Author's Note:**

> I've been dreaming for floof Nero furball for a while, but it's only fulfilled after several mad lads of mine pushed me off the endless edge of the flooooooof Nero cliff. Also I watched too much cooking and cat related Youtube channels, and this is the result.

The rain is drowning every single creature in Capulet. A wet, limping furball drags itself across the street, there is some dirt attached to its long, dripping tail, gradually melts into mud as the rain pours, making it harder to proceed.

Nero falls again when his wounded right front paw touches the ground. Three long, deep gashes lie across his limb, blood has stopped oozing from them, but it starts getting swollen, leaking fluids since yesterday. From his limited knowledge, he supposes that it’s infected. 

Had he been able to taken care of that, he should be just fine. However, that goddamn black cat really beat him up, hard, cruel and menacing, hunted him down until he fled into a tiny sewer under some building; it's a miracle that only one of his injury was affected by the disgusting water inside. Still, it’s impossible for cats to be bloodthirst like that cat was, but Nero cannot knew that beforehand. If he anticipated that he could have met another cait sith, Nero would have been more careful. 

But he went full-steamed, as usual, and that’s what he got. 

His body is losing heat rapidly in the rain, and his soaked fur did almost nothing for maintaining body temperature. Trembling, Nero curls his right paw, using his good legs to walk--crawling, actually. He can’t take it anymore, if he wants to go another mile tomorrow, he must rest for a few hours. 

His eyes flicker, before locking them on a nice, white wooden house. Unfortunately, there’s no place for shelter in visible range, despite how fair it looks; at this point Nero barely has strength to curse his luck. He turns to the other way, baby blue eyes meeting a smaller house, most importantly, it has a garage and it's open.

For a brief moment he forgets pain, half limping, half hopping forward. Nero particularly ignores those metallic noises coming from the depths of the dark, out of overwhelming exhaustion. He finally reaches a place where rain drops aren't corrupting his figure.  
_I’ll stay for one night, just one night._ He thinks bitterly to himself. _Who knows? With that injury, maybe I won’t wake up again._

Curling up, the wet fur ball loses consciousness before he could think about anything else.

※

※

※

 

 _……Is he alright?_  
The voice is so far away, drifting. Nero thinks it’s a devil or an angel, because whoever they are, they sound gentle, yet alluring.  
_Poor baby._  
…………  
…………

 

"……asleep……”

Nero’s ears perk up, before slowly opening his eyes. For some reason, he’s not on the cold, damp, hard concrete ground anymore; instead, he is in a basket filled warm, dry clothes, which smells like sugar and strawberry syrup. Obviously, they belong to a living human. When Nero manages to pick up the heavy scent of male human, a faint voice interrupts his interrogation. 

"Yeah, yeah. I won’t. C’mon, it’s a living creature, not my laundry! Why would I forget to feed him?……Hold up, are _you guys_ assuming that laundry _dies_ without food?”

Huh. Nero thinks to himself: this IS a male……man. Not only does he sound arrogant, but also, if what he just told whoever he's talking to is true, the man seems lazy and scruffy. Still, he saved Nero from the hellhole and brought him in, that is enough for Nero to suck it up. Decide it better not to move, he finds a mirror in the room, using it to examine his current state. It shows a fluffy ragdoll, gray from the dirt on his body, with light brown ears and tail. Since there's no scent of soap on his body, he couldn't have been washed. Maybe the guy just dried him and wiped away dirt on his body, but it feels so much better.

His injured limb is no longer swollen, but his fur is shorter than he remembers. The guy in the other room must have taken him to a vet to deal with the wound. Nero cannot recognize what was done to close it up, maybe they stitched it to make the healing faster? 

Anyway, with medical assistance, it’s no longer a problem. Next topic coming up is food. Nero eats nothing for straight two days, drinks from filthy puddles on the ground to keep himself from dehydration. In a place that edible resources are available, he needs a meal, whether it’s good or bad; even a piece of pizza crust can keep him going for a few more hours. After all, he can’t expect too much, even if the man saved his life. Waving his long, caramel-colored fluffy tail left and right, Nero accidentally knocks a cardboard box to the floor. _Crap, thank god it sounds empty._ He thinks to himself. 

Just as expected, the voice from earlier is immediately at the door. “Ohhh, the baby’s awake.” It must be the sleepiness dangling from Nero’s rest, because he sounds a little more attractive when getting closer. 

Looking him up and down, Nero analyzes that the man is over six feet; silver, gray hair tying behind his neck as a little pigtail. A burgundy red tank top stretches loosely across his chest, if Nero ignores his strawberry boxers, the man must be astonishing overall. Still, from Nero’s height he can’t see the man’s eyes properly, only catching a hint of blue that resembles his, and stubble that he’d definitely dislike if the guy tries to nuzzle him. "You want somethin'?"

Nero mews at the man with a lick on his nose, sitting up like a well-behaved kitty. _I’m asking politely, old man. Don’t throw shit at me._

Unfortunately, he thinks it as greeting and smiles back: “Hi there, baby. The name’s Dante. You OK?” Dante offers his hand, which, unfortunately, is a convenient source for Nero to show how much he needs to eat. The cat paws at his hand, before catching and threatening to bite down. Laughing, Dante retreats his palm to scratch between Nero’s ears. “Ya hungry?” His fingers are thick, and his palm is so large that it covers his head, feels so good. Nero can’t stay cocky out of hunger and the hand caressing his forehead, so he simply lets out a meow in protest. 

While Dante is away for his meal, Nero attempts to achieve his human form, but to no avail. For some reason, he can’t turn into a human since his defeat, probably due to loss of power. He snarls to himself: if that stupid black cat shows up again, Nero is surely going to beat him to shit. 

“Dinner’s ready!” Nero’s ears perk up, before carefully walking towards the door. His injured foot stings a little when he puts weight on it, and he’s worried about reopening the wound, hence he’d better not risk it. Dante comes back with a wooden bowl and spoon, from what Nero can make out, the mashed content inside smells like chicken. He sniffs it when a half-spoon is served in front of his nose, before slowly lapping it up. Even if the room is filled with sound of his rapid licking, he still distinguishes the small smirk from the man. “Thought you’d like it.” 

Nero finishes the first spoonful of chichen mash, smacking his lips and licks up the remainings on his nose. However, the ragdoll is blocked by a hairy, large arm when he aims for the bowl. “A-aah, baby. Shouldn’t let you gulp the whole thing down at once, doctor’s orders.” Nero narrows his eyes at that comment, licking his nose in oppose. Now that it comes to him, something about Dante’s phrase is making him unpleasant. _Why does the old fart keep calling me “baby”? I’m not a kitty kneading for mommy’s milk. Plus, I have a name._

He tries to tell Dante his name, but the closest interpretation to his name he makes is a sound between “Niwo” or “Mewo”. The old man isn’t even paying attention to his attempts, offering another spoon. Nero is too fumed to notice those gentle, loving eyes looking at his ears: they fall flat against the curve of his head as he concentrates on eating, almost looks like a big rabbit with a longer tail. 

Now Nero’s full, warm and sated, Dante lifts his right paw. “Lemme check.” Nero lets him do whatever he does, yawning. He hasn’t been able to let his guard down like this for several days, and when he does, the exhaustion suppressed in the back of his brain comes back immediately. When he knows it, he’s nodding off in Dante’s hands. The man puts him back into the pile of worn sweaters and blankets, where Nero drifts into sleep. 

The next morning, Nero wakes up to loud snores coming from the room across his. Signing to himself, Nero sits up before lowering his body to the floor. He takes gentle and small steps, considering his right paw in recovery, eventually stops at Dante’s door. “Meow.” He calls out, rewarded with a soft groan from the puff made of blankets. He meows again, and there is only another groan. 

Five minutes and about twenty more meows later, Dante is finally awake, leaning at the door, hair in a mess. “Mornin’, babe. Enjoying your stay?”  
Nero straightens his tail. _Worst service ever._

He takes revenge when the man makes breakfast for both of them. Stealing chicken from the plate and staring at the man in silence--he knows how irritating cats' glares are when people tries to concentrate. But Dante simply lets out a loving comment of "Needy baby", letting him ruin his work like a naughty kitty would. Not wanting to be unnecessarily spoiled, Nero gives up and leaves the kitchen.

He decides to wait at the dining table, watching the rain pouring outside of French window. Despite the overcast sky, white-painted dining area gathers weak light, illuminating the space. Nero enjoys the cozy atmosphere, closing his eyes, only turns his head when he hears footsteps approaching.

Dante puts a tray on the white table, near Nero's paws. The cat's nose wrinkles at the smell of ketchup, looking down to find a bowl of mashed chicken--again--and pink plate serving pizza made with toast. Without second thought he scratches at the latter, stealing it from the chuckling man. "No, baby. It's not for y-- Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?"

The man's teasing stops at Nero's sudden success, digging his claws into it while dragging towards him. Dante barely has time to put a hand between the cat and his pizza, one second away from slipping out of the tray. 

_Gimme that._ Refuse to give up, Nero's paw hits across the back of Dante's hand, toe beans squeezing his skin.  
"I can make pizza for you, but not now." Dante explains with patience. "Your body is screwed, and that will make it worse. Pizza will have to wait, but I promise I would make one for you. Deal?" 

Nero blinks, before noticing what he has done: he literally tried to rob food from someone who volunteers to help him. And Dante is right: even though he craves for food, his digestion can't afford much, especially when it's healing on its own. Acknowledged his mistake, Nero puts his tail on his front legs, trying to show his apology. 

Surprisingly, Dante smiles. "I think we're good." His hand roams down Nero's back, tickling the base of his tail. A wave of pleasure bursts from there, rushing through the ragdoll's spine and makes him jolt. It doesn't feel bad, but sinfully good. As if he can just flop over, shamelessly shows Dante his belly. Thankfully, the man doesn't continue his torture, giving the bowl of mash to him instead. 

They share breakfast time peacefully afterwards.

 

Nero spends the rest week on sleeping, eating and walking slowly around Dante’s place. He won’t go into places such as kitchen or the man’s room alone, knowing that he may cause trouble to either himself or anything fragile.

When he eyed on the house for the first time, he thinks it'll be narrow and dirty. But Nero decides he made a mistake by judging a book by its cover, since Dante has a fine taste for decorations. White paint lights up the whole house, so it isn't as dark as the exterior look implies.

The house has a large living room, where Nero likes to nap on the red, linen sofa. If Dante is back from grocery store, he can see the door opening as soon as he wakes up.

Aside from the dining table they share, there is another counter for private use. Yesterday, the man set up camera, cleaned up cat fur on it with a vacuum, and shoot a video of him making Tiramisu. Nero knew he'd better not to disturb, sitting from a distance while watching every single moves Dante made. It's oddly satisfying to see a big guy like him doing elaborate tasks, especially when his large fingers dipped those ladyfingers into coffee, eyes focusing with care. 

Nero imagined if the cookies were fingers of a girl, she would've screamed from the way Dante stared at her hand with passion, secretly laughing to himself. 

Leaving the jokes aside, the man does have some talent in cooking. Nero thinks, while lying across the study room floor, keeping an eye on Dante editing the clip. To be honest, he wants to try those Tiramisu himself; but he can't as long as he remains in cat form. Nero knows he's almost there, one more week and his strength should be sufficient.

"Alright, it's done. Just wait and see how many people gonna drool and flood their house." Dante half-heartedly jests, stretching in his chair while his T-shirt rises, conveniently showing off his well-built abs. Nero growls in disagreement. _Praising yourself already? Nah, you're unrated before I say so._

The man glances at him with an interesting look, "Why do I got this feeling that you don't second my opinion?" Nero closes his eyes, not wanting to reveal that he understands everything Dante says. That will only add up more trouble, in many terms, mostly negative. 

He feels fingers scratching his forehead, before Dante speaks up, low and husky. "Nah, I think you don't want me harassing you all the time. Good night, baby."

Nero waves his tail once in response.

 

At the weekend, Dante uses warm water to wipe his body, fully revealing Nero’s shiny white fur. “Such a beautiful boy.” He praises. Nero mentally scoffs at his comment. _Of course I am, dumbass._

His injured right paw is healing faster, due to Dante’s care. Nero knows that he could have been freezed of infected to death without his rescue, so he decides to put up with Dante’s obsession with his pink beans. No, it has nothing to do with the affection swirling in his clear, blue eyes when he stares at them. And he doesn’t like it when Dante calls him baby and touches his head. It feels……good. Too good for a cat who has wandered for three months since March. 

Nero only has an idea about how long he’d left his old home after seeing the calendar in Dante’s living room; time is hard to recognize, too hard to endure, and too painful to suffer alone. But he can bear that, by stop thinking about anything but focus on finding another place to stay overnight, some leftover or mouse or birds to keep him from starving to death.  
Thus, the first time Dante makes him food, Nero just sees it as what it is, because he never has a chance to think. Still, he gradually realizes the difference, when he laps the spoon full of mashed meat and some dried cat food--Dante starts adding little amount of that into his diet--he tastes dedication from another soul. Much more than he thinks he deserves.

What truly terrifies him is that Dante seems to want him stay. Nero is not ready for having another human in his life; to be specific, accepting love from another creature. He grows afraid of potential departure, that if he responds to those who love him, they will disappear within a mere second. On the other hand, estrangement makes moving on alone easier, hurting less. 

At least Nero thinks the only consequence waiting for him is to endure this exile til the day he perishes.

 

 

※

 

About two weeks after he meets Dante, Nero is in the backseat of his car, revisiting the animal hospital. Dante doesn't have a proper cage to carry him around, so he puts him in a long luggage bag with nets on both sides, allowing him to breathe.

The cat curls up against himself, unwilling to see the vet. These weeks are surely the shortest weeks in Nero's whole life. He is already missing Dante's food, his house, his scent and his voice, even though the time hasn't come. 

The vet only makes his mood worse. Dressing in white with a blue shirt, he shows a cold, uncaring attitude and it reminds Nero about an unpleasant memory from the past. "Are you keeping him, Dante?" He asks while swiftly undoing Nero's stitches. It's completely sealed up, leaving white scars under the skin, but that won't last long. Just like his relationship with Dante. Pathetic. 

The man sighs. "I dunno. I think he doesn't like me, not to the point of hate but…… there's something. He's pushing me away, always beholding from a distance." Nero stares at his lonely expression, almost wants to protest. He can literally bite through Dante's red leather jacket with his fury, denial and sadness. 

"So, that won't work out, huh?" Nero feels the vet examining him, his eyes sharp as razor. As if he's a parrot, a hamster, a lizard under live dissection.  
"Let's see……"

Nero's pupils extend, ears collapsing to both sides, tail between his legs. He doesn't know what's going to happen, he doesn't even want to know. _Dante…… please. Help me._

"Vergil! VERRRRRGILLLLL!"  
The quacking noise doesn't belong to Dante, actually, it doesn't belong to human. A tremendous, shiny blue macaw fumbles into the clinic. "Breaking news! V is here, he wants me to tell you that-- O-oh." He notices the pair of stranger in the room. "Sorry guys, it's just me and my manners."  
Nero blinks, licking his nose in confusion. The bird lands beside him, feathers glistening like sapphire; it's body the size of a fucking eagle, wing brushing at Nero's tail. It isn't meant to be offensive, considering how big this intruder is. 

"Griffon, I told you to wait outside when there's other patients." Vergil scolds, while Dante silently mouths "WHAT IS THAT-- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"  
"Oh, okay. Roger that. See y'all later!" The bird fumbles into the hallway. After the interruption, Vergil no longer occupies them, only handing Dante a box before they leave. 

Nero has made up his mind: he won't let Dante send him to an animal shelter, even if he has to risk his life every day, trembling in winter or under pouring rain. Not that he likes nomadic life, but because he's already too heartbroken to afford losing anything else. Living with Dante will be the best memory he carries into the grave, and it's enough.

To put his plan into practice, Nero behaves, willingly lets Dante scratch his forehead, back and tail. He wants to remember how his hands feel like, as long as possible. To put it briefly into words, they are perfect, beautiful, large, warm but sad. Nero wants to melt in them, so he doesn't have to fear for Dante letting go.

Then a thought pops into his head: Dante, running in the rain with his red T-shirt trying to find where his baby is. Running in vain, or in tears. It makes his heart clench, heating up the corners of his clear blue eyes. For the first time, he decides to show how he truly feels about a human, spontaneously. He leans in, before nuzzling Dante's fingers with his cheek. The man smiles, rubbing his ears, that's when Nero picks up the scent of cherry syrup, and his movements stops.

"It's nothing, baby. Just a can of cherry soda." Dante senses his abnormalities, making an explanation.  
_Did you just say…… cherry soda?_ Nero stares at him with wide eyes. And visible hype. Now he has a side quest: get out of the house and snuggle a can of cherry soda with him. God, he loves it like hell. 

The rapture filling his mind overwhelms grief, or is he ignoring it on purpose? Nero doesn't want to make it clear. He waits, until Dante is asleep that he sneaks out of bed.

He assumes that the soda is stored in the fridge, because when he smelled it in Dante's mouth, there were cool drops of water in his hands, the can must had been taken out from a colder container. So Nero gently tiptoes into the kitchen, pawing at the refrigerator's door. It won't budge.

Annoyed, Nero swipes his tail widely, unconsciously bursts into a white furball in frustration. _Dammit._ If he had a human hand…… 

Why does every single thing he wants relates to human in some ways? He can't have a home without them, can't be safe without them, he can't even take out a can of stupid cherry soda on his own. It's all their fault, they mess his peaceful life all the time; rage boils inside Nero, and he finally loses his temper.

 _Why do I have to deal with you bastards all the time?_ He hisses. _You know what, fuck that stupid vet,_ He slaps the fridge with a barely audible thud, then another. "fuck that stupid cat beated me, fuck you stupid cherry soda," a louder noise, but he's too off to be aware. "And fuck you, Dante--" He landed a light punch on the fridge door. 

…… 

……Hold up. 

Looking down, he sees his paws have turned into human hands, somehow. And he's wearing clothes--modern cait siths have their special tastes in fashion. A turquoise blue hoodie with dark blue T-shirt underneath, black jeans accompanied by short leather boots. He mews in confusion, rubbing his nose with one hand, caramel ears and tail twitching. 

 

That just…… happened. Whatever enabled him turning into a human, he can open the fridge now. Then he'll transform into a cat again, going through the pet door. But before this, Nero remembers that he wants to mark Dante into his memory; thus he traces his index finger through his T-shirt, changing its color until it matches Dante’s burgundy red one. After that, he grabs the soda can, walking to the door in pure silence. It's easy for him to stay quiet, moving into the dining area.

That's when he catches a glimpse of silver from the corner of his eyes. Nero knows he's fucked. 

"At first I think you just can't sleep, and you'll be alright after some rampage." Dante's voice is at the front door, and Nero's heart sinks into his stomach, when he senses that Dante is upset. "But, this is new. You do understand everything I say, and you can turn into human, but hides the fact from me." 

"I--I don't want to scare you." Nero stutters. He knows that he hurt Dante's feelings. "Besides, I lost power from the battle with a wild cat, so the second one doesn't count." His voice grows weaker, suppressing a whimper out of fear as Dante is now towering him.

Nero almost thinks he will be punched when Dante gives him a fake smile, as if he's trying to calm down. "A rebellious kitty, I like that." His voice is too dangerous and deep, making Nero's body jerk and shiver. "Last question: what does 'that stupid cat' entitle? Is it the cause of your injury?" 

So he did say that out, loud. Nero thinks for a moment before replying: "That's a long story. If you'd like to hear, I suggest we take a seat."

Dante doesn't seem too happy with his answer, but he obliges. "Just don't run away from me without a word."  
"Can't. You caught me red-handed." Nero says before sitting beside him. He notices the man is wearing barely anything but a pair of black briefs, and the curves illuminated by dim, yellow glow of the night light. 

"There is no way I can stop you if you really want. Anyway, before we get started, do I get to know your name?” Dante asks. “I know I called you ‘baby’ all the time since we’ve met. But……that’s because I don’t want to give you one.” 

“Why not?” Nero asks in wide eyes, cat ears rustling in his short, white hair. “I think your taste isn’t that bad.”

Dante shakes his head: “It’s not about taste or wit; it’s about emotion. If I gave you a name, I would feel that you’re part of this house, and it would be so hard to let go if someone else happens to adopt you. I posted your picture on Instargram, so that’s not impossible. However……” He shifts, crossing his legs and gestures to Nero’s figure. “I think we need some time to rearrange. Who knows? Maybe you wanna stay with me?” 

His words makes Nero’s heart light up with hope. Yes, he wants to live with Dante, and now he’s offered with this option, Nero can’t resist. “I--I’d love to. Your house is nice, food is good……I mean, yeah. I’ll stay.”  
“And your name, baby?” Nero frowns at his tease. But he doesn’t hate Dante calling him “baby” anymore, after understanding his reason. “Nero. I’m Nero.”

“Nero, huh? Not a bad name.” The way Dante pronounces his name is unnecessarily seductive, voice husky from his sleep. “Now, would you tell me more about your brutal opponent? You can have that cherry soda in the meantime, by the way.”

Nero is more than happy to obey.


	2. Crepe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making friends, promises and durian.  
>  **Important announcement** : since my final is around the corner, I won't be able to update until the end of June. You can subscribe to my work and receive emails whenever I post the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JFJ;AIEJGKA;JFIJ I think I forgot some details but it's OK, the outline shows that every task must be done in this chapter is done.  
> Enjoy Nero and some of his new friends, I guess?

Nero opens the soda can with a light _pop_ , taking a small sip before he starts. Dante, on the other hand, finally realized how discourteous his current nudeness is, and conveniently pulls a blanket to cover himself up.  
“About a week ago, I arrived at Capulet, didn’t even know I already left my home town. I lost track of time, and was following my instinct at the moment.” The younger male starts, staring the peach-colored can with strange fondness. “That’s why I found that idiot cat.” His words seems to have inspired Dante, because he says: “Let me guess, is that black cat a prey of your kind? Does that explain why you are after him?”

As convincing as it sounds, Nero denies his assumption. “No, it’s the opposite. Animal that becomes siths, or whatever you like to call, relies on natural and sincere sources to live. Capulet is oddly flourished with these, as a residential area; and it seems to attract……‘things’, in both good and bad ways.” He pauses for a moment to arrange words, missing the complex expression made by Dante beside him. “The black cat, he is the bad thing. Have you read Sherlock Holmes before? The black dog that takes human’s lives. The cat is the same wickedness. If he rooted in this town, you human are totally fucked.”  
Nero takes another sip, anger flaring in his eyes. “He will eat out all the sources that drive you towards good, then pollutes your town with evil. I’ve seen people who came from those places……it’s…….disgusting.” 

The man seems to understand. “If I were you, I would try to cast him away, too.”

“Yeah, but I screwed that up.” Nero sighs. “I don’t know--I lived at least twenty-four years, and that thing is probably two days old. Okay, maybe I hadn’t been eating at all and was forcing myself a little, but--”

“Nero,” Dante stops him from making more excuses. “you were in a bad state. It wasn’t your fault, just need a little more luck.” He reaches out and ruffles his hair. Nero should have felt relieved, knowing that somebody is at his side; instead he feels vulnerable, tears gathering at the corner of his eyes. Not wanting to let Dante see him cry, he gently dodges his hand. “I was already lucky enough to survive. Normally, damage done by wicked creatures carries curses. Even if the injury is healed, the curse will remain until a wizard or witch undoes it.” 

 

As he speaks, doubts come into his head. The black cat was literally trying everything he could have done to kill Nero, but didn’t leave a curse on his wound? It doesn’t make sense. Maybe the creature is a newborn, but it has been falsely given by the knowledge to make others suffer; their existence is against the rules of nature, after all. He wants to ask Dante about more detail, but the man is yawning before he can speak up. “I guess that’s for tonight, old man?” He teases.  
“Yep, can’t hold out much longer.” He replies while another yawn comes out. “Now I know your little secret, you don’t need to run away from me, yeah? Stay here.” The last sentence sounds like a command to Nero, even though Dante probably doesn’t mean it. “You can use the guest room, the one where your cat bed is. Or do you want to sleep with me?” 

Nero shrugs, before jokingly punches Dante in the chest. He takes the drink with him, closing the bedroom door; after the chit-chat they have, he wants to show Dante that he trusts him a little more, and is not planning on running away. He curls up in the pile Dante’s old sweater and unused pillow, trying to drift into sleep, but he keeps hearing footsteps.

Dante’s still awake, wondering in the house, sometimes sitting down, sometimes stands up, the more Nero hears him moving restlessly, the more guilty he feels: Nero knows how fragile human can be if anything they have connected with them is lost, and according to Dante’s behavior, it is too late for both of them to leave. 

Luckily, he won’t regret what has been done, though. The last contact with human taught him not to cry over spilled milk, in a cruel, heartbreaking way. Nero shivers from that cold memory, taking another sip from the soda can. The sweet combined with odd, bitter taste of cherry syrup drags his mind out from those moments, awakening his numb senses. After fleeing from the hellhole of lifeless feathers, ripped claws and bodies, he curls himself up at the corner of a gas station, silently sobbing, rain pouring from the roof and splash onto the concrete ground. The sky layered in several shades of dark and gray, color was deprived from everything except Nero, and a couple vending machine that sold soft drinks, seems cheap, but it’s the only thing that survived the holocaust of gray scale. Defending himself in deep blue, however, Nero thought brightness was slowly leaking from his body, as if his mind was bleeding to death. 

Nero hid his cat ears in the hoodie, tails covered in jacket. He knows that Kyrie and Credo cannot save him, so he didn’t try to call for help--actually, he can always find a kind stranger, but after what he had been through, his courage was thoroughly consumed. He can’t pluck up anything left to seek for assistance. 

The noises outside of the room has died down; Nero isn’t sure about what Dante is up to, maybe he goes back into his room, or just passes out on the sofa. He drinks the rest remainings, until there aren’t any drops landing on his tongue. 

In his memory, the endless storm had came to a pause-- a loud thud alarmed the trembling young man, he turns to his right, where another survivor showed up. A man in red, grabbing a can of cherry soda from the machine. 

He was looking at him.

────

It is when Nero opens his eyes that he realizes he has fallen asleep. Unlike any nightmares he had, he feels rather at peace, as if he just revisited a long forgotten scene in other people’s life. He hears Dante rummaging in the kitchen, pulling out drawers and open cabinets. 

Yeah, he has to face Dante. Nero quickly abandons the option of turning back into a cat, because it’ll make the man think that Nero is unwilling to talk directly to him. But how to start the interaction is another case. Nero ponders on some easygoing, positive dialogues such as an apology or offering help--Dante is still creating noises that resembles glass jars colliding, so the latter is rather practical. 

Still, when Nero walks out of the guest room, greeted by Dante with a warm smile. Instead of smiling back, Nero frowns. “You hate pants, don’t ya?”

The man in red T-shirt, again(Nero concludes that Dante has a fondness for the color red, it has to be), chuckles and shakes his head. “If you hate to see my legs that much, I think I’ll behave for once.”

"No, it's fine. It's your house, after all." Nero flushes from the thought of him making the situation awkward than he meant to be. Lucky for him, because Dante laughs it off. "I'll make myself at home, then."

Meanwhile, to Dante’s misfortune, Nero’s cat instinct tells him that Dante is pretty nervous, too-- the younger man finds his formal attempts ridiculous. He can nearly smell Dante’s adrenaline in the air, hidden in the elder’s masculine scent combined with faint, sweet and sour taste of strawberries. To Nero’s surprise, he finds it pleasing; although he has learned how men smelled like from Credo, recognized at least a hundred kind of scents from male humans, but he’d never picked up any of these…… addicting. Nero tries to suppress, but his tail straightens as he approaches the man, who is awfully aware of his reaction. “A fan of desserts, aren’t ya?” He smiles, testing induction stove on the dining table.

Well, the small talk that just happened is……possibly more positive than any prologues he came up with in his room. Nero stupidly nods, noticing the source of those noises he’d heard: three different jars of jams. "Pick one you like, I’m going to make sweet crepe-- oh, right,” Dante stops to rush into his room, coming back with a silver tablet in his hand. “I gonna stream this. Would you mind? You can stay out of the screen, I won’t let them see you.”

“Should I turn into a cat?” Nero asks before he realizes it’s a dumb question. Plus, he can’t lend Dante a hand if they become paws-- maybe the elder doesn’t ask for, but he wants to. 

The other man simply replies with: “At your pleasure, kid.” before he glance at the jar of blueberry jam in Nero’s hand. “Made your choice? Alright then, the orange jam belongs to the ladies.” Reaching out, he puts the jar shining with a faint gold away. Then he walk past Nero, warm skin unconsciously rubs against the younger’s sleeve, picking up the tablet. “Starting in three, two one.” 

Already hides his ears and tail away, Nero still doesn’t want to reveal himself-- he’s still pretty alarmed by strangers, despite that Dante has succeeded in becoming an exception. He watches Dante frying crepes, while answering questions from the streaming chatroom. 

“ ‘How’s the cat you found last month?’, well, I know how concerned you all are when it comes to _cats_ , hmm?” His seductive tone raises a frown out of Nero, but the man continues without noticing. “Yeah, he’s doing good-- my brother manages to find him a home. I’m sure he’ll be happy out there.”

It takes Nero some time to comprehend, but he knows there are so many implication lying in Dante’s words, and it worries him. Especially the part where he doesn’t make it clear what exactly does “a home” entitle, that Nero believes Dante means he welcomes him into the house. Yes, the old man treats him good, but Nero can’t accept him as his human, not when Kyrie and Credo still have such significant places in his heart. 

He feels guilty, both for leaving them without a word, and pushing Dante away simply because he is not capable of letting go. For a long period of time, Nero just watches Dante cooks, staying away on the other side of the kitchen when Dante makes a small yelp. “Oh, yeah--Coffee. Dammit, I totally forgot that.” 

The next thing Nero knows, Dante’s eyes meet his, asking: “Nero, would you make me some coffee?”

Nero is stunned. First of all, Dante is streaming, which means everything he says is being heard by hundreds or thousands of strangers over the world. Second, the sun is shining through the window behind Dante, wrapping him in the veil of light gold and silky white, leaving glowing traces on his hair, forehead and arms holding a plate full of crepes, hot and ready. 

Hints of heat reared up in the younger man's stomach, and his cheeks are burning, tail straightens while its tip curling into a big question mark. He hears himself replying dryly. "Yeah……sure. I know the drill, just tell me where you put the stuff." 

Before he knows it, he's pulling out the bag of coffee beans, already working on it, while Dante opens the jam jar. The sweet scent of blueberries has him mentally drooling, temporarily forgets about Dante mentioning him in public. 

It isn’t long before the older man declares that breakfast is ready, ending his stream after saluting his subscribers. “Sorry to keep you waiting, kid.” He picks up the white mug, smelling the dark, brown liquid before lifting an eyebrow. Yet Dante doesn’t make any comment, not until he tastes the coffee. His eyes widen, looking at a very confused Nero, ears falling back in question. 

“Nero, how did you make this?” He asks. “This……is good.“ The inappropriate amount of respect in his glare leaves the younger in discomfort. “I, um, learned that from the previous family I stayed in. They run a coffee shop for a living.” Neither does he want to spill his past out; Nero is not quite ready to tell the events off with casual attitude, even mentioning them make his heart throb with sadness. 

Thankfully, Dante just hums in response, evidently satisfied. “Food’s ready. If you want more cream cheese or jam, suit yourself.” 

Still minding his business, Nero sits down at the white table, lazily picking up knife and fork to give a small bite. He repeats the process of numbly cutting, biting and swallowing until the taste eases the slight pain in his mind away. Dante, on the other hand, seems to be interested in the coffee beans Nero used, holding his crepe in one hand while his teeth pulling large pieces off into the mouth. Nero sighs: despite how much culinary skill this guys obtains, he eats like a cannibal. No, even cannibal owns table manner, only Dante has no courtesy. 

He is too deep in the excesses of his mind that he stops eating, so when a large hand approaches and touches his forehead, Nero nearly jumps. "Hey. I know humans like to scare their cat, but it's only because they know each other well. Otherwise, you'll just scare the shit out of them." He snarls. 

"But you didn't shit your pants, did you?" Dante smiles back, rubbing his fingers against Nero's nose bridge, the younger mewls, closing his eyes as warmth spreads across his cheek. For a moment he forgets to protest, leaning into the man's touch with a content expression. 

They stay like that for quite a while, until hearing a light _thud_ on the French window. Nero turns to see what's happening--conveniently leaves Dante's hand at the same time--to see a blue macaw bouncing in Dante's backyard. "Isn't that the chicken from yesterday?" 

"Yeah, I think Verg calls him Griffon. An exotic name, to say the least." Dante's tone lowers a few noches, obviously unpleasant and hostile. "What's he doing in my place?"

"I think he 's looking for me." Nero speaks up, "It's just my instinct, but…… maybe Griffon is another kind of sith, although I've never heard of a bird sith before." He looks into Dante's eyes, expecting answers from the older. To his disappointment, Dante seems to have no idea, either.

"There's only one way to find out." Is the only thing that he says. Nero nods before standing up, shrinking back into the white ragdoll with a fluffy tail, walking towards the backdoor.

He almost misses the other man's words: "Oh and, before you go and meet new friends, promise me one thing." 

_What is it, old man?_ He waves his tail, slightly turning his head to glare at Dante with the corner of his eye. 

"Promise me you'll be back." It's hard to read his face, but Nero knows that Dante is afraid of him leaving, just as he expected. This weight is too much for Nero's heart to bear, already broken once without fully healing.

Despite that, Nero replies with a meow. _Yup, I'll be around for more blueberry jam you make._ Then he rushes through the pet door. 

 

────

 

The first thing Nero notices in the garden is how deserted it seems to be. He can smell various kinds of herbs, drowned by overgrown weeds and brown, embrittled leaves. _This is not good,_ he mentally frowns at the sight. although the natural environment is better left untouched, it needs to be properly maintained. If the old man doesn’t do it, he’ll deal with it himself.

“Took you long enough.” Nero looks up, finding Griffon at the other side of the garden, about three meters away from him. “Still, it’s good to see ya bonding with that big guy, we’re worry about that you’d never allow anyone near you anymore. Some cats are like that.”

Nero, on the other hand, studies the large macaw’s appearance, and comes to the conclusion that Griffon can’t be a normal bird. Each of his eye contains three amber pupils, adorned with short horns resembles devil or goat, and a beak splitted into quarter halves; most importantly, Nero can see light blue streaks of power roaming under his wings. If Dante sees this, he’ll definitely freak out. “Yeah, you should feel lucky that I’m still up for some chit chat with a little chickie. How about we move aside from the window? Old man will have a heart attack seeing what’s on your feathers.”

Instead of oblige, the bird laughs. “Hah! Don’t mind him, sunshine. Vergil is his brother, therefore he _must_ knows something about me. Just never see it with his old eyes.” 

“He’s _not_ old.” Nero mews, slapping his tail across the grass. 

“But you just--” Griffon lets out a quack when Nero’s deadly glare descends on him. “Alright, alright, let’s talk. To be brief, V wants me to check on you, especially after we know that you have met that Nightmare in our community. ”

“You mean the black cat?”

“Exactly. V calls that kind of thing a ‘nightmare’.” Griffon gives him an interesting look. “Do you know why it feels disgusting to us? Because it’s the result of false amalgamation, consisting dead animals’ souls. At least that’s what he tells me.” 

Nero is confused. “I’ve seen animals die before, but they didn’t turn into this. Is there a reason? Like, pollution or something?” He sits, tail resting on his front paws. His gesture keeps him from being too startled by what Griffon says next: “Lynching.”  
Immediately, Nero’s ears falls to both sides, staring at Griffon as he just said he has murdered someone. “What?”

“It means abusing animals and killing them.” The bird explains carefully. “That’s all you need to know, their souls are filled with hate for human, seeking for revenge even if they’re dead. Then they become Nightmares.” 

Shaking his head, Nero refuses to think about what happened to him at the house. _I’m already out of there,_ He tells himself, _Dante is visibly stronger than that freak. Even if he tries to find me, Dante can call the police or beat him to shit._

Unaware of Nero’s uneasiness, the big bird clears his throat before continues. “My human, V, is an expert of dealing with Nightmares, but we need your support. If you help us with capturing it, we can make sure that this Nightmare never bothers Capulet again.”

His words raises so many questions out of Nero’s kitty brain, but as soon as Griffon finishes talking, the first sentence Nero manages to make out is: “But--but I haven’t settled the matter between--”

“Yeah, I know that, tiger. And guess what? You _are_ fighting the black cat, which is exactly our request.” Griffon explains:”V can’t tame a Nightmare if it’s too strong. My power can deal damage to Nightmares, however, can’t properly weaken them.”

“But aren’t you a sith, too? Siths are the proxies of Mother nature, we are born to hunt those……Nightmares.” The cat sith licks his nose, before he realizes a specific detail. Griffon said that his human is an expert of Nightmare, and deal with them. Could it be…....”You were a Nightmare?”

This time Griffon answers after a few seconds of silence. “Your witty-wit starts to annoy me, but yes, I would have become a Nightmare-- many, actually. According to V, he combined three parrots’ soul with a dying bald eagle, hence, my existence is not totally against the rules of nature. Nor do I want to hurt people anymore.” 

To be honest, Nero doesn’t understand . All he knows is that he finally finds allies, practical helping hands. He wants to thank Griffon and V, but suddenly he hears noises from the inside of Dante’s house. “Is that……a dog?” But how could there be a dog in Dante’s house, without any fur, smell or the sound of nails scratching on the ground approaching him like this--

"WATCH OUT!" Griffon screams, picking Nero up by the back of his neck and leaps into the air. Out of instinct, Nero relaxes immediately in case of straining himself, lowering his head to see a huge Collie rushing through the pet door onto the lawn. The intruder only stops when she notices that the cat and the bird she sensed aren't tackled under her legs, and looks up. "Yo, Griffon." She greets them with a silly, loving smile. "Hanging out with our new friend already?" 

Nero glances at the French window, eyes meeting a very worried Dante, and two ladies looking at them. Obviously, they brought the dog, and she broke free from the leash while the three were focused on talking. He slightly nods at the man, trying to tell him that everything’s okay. Releasing him, the bird rolls his eyes at the black-and-brown Border Collie. “ ‘Hang out’? Yeah, we were hanging out-- until _Miss Grumpy_ stomps in and ruins the fun.”

The large dog whines at the scolding, Nero, feels sympathy towards her, frowns at the macaw. “It is a matter of fact that she nearly crushed me, but she didn’t mean to do that.” Then he turns to the larger creature, looking up so he meets her eyes. “You’re a dog sith, aren’t ya? What’s your name?”

“Nicoletta--Nico.” She replies, before noticing Nero is not blaming her. “Wait. You don’t hate me? And……you believe in siths? Every puppy I’ve met tells me that sith only exists in bedtime stories.” She examines Nero with curious eyes, walking around while smelling him. “I don’t know that I am a sith, until I met Griffon. My humans, Trish and Lady, took me to the vet because I have lived for fifteen years without seemingly aging, coincidentally bumped into that little chickie. They said it’s a good thing, though; I can keep them accompanied throughout their lives.” Her happy smile reappears as she finishes the sentense.

On the other hand, Nero feels a sense of envy rising in his throat, but he quickly wipes that off. "Nice to meet ya.” He mewls, rubbing his body agianst Nico’s fur, showing friendliness. The collie huffs with joy, before her ears rear up, big, watery eyes staring at the bird. “Wait. Griffon, have you made the promise thing?”

 

What promise? Nero licks his nose, staring at his two new friends. “Nah, I’m waiting for everyone to show up." Says the blue bird, who lands on the opposite side of Nero, the three forming a small triangle on the ground. “Now that all of us are present, it’s time to form the union.” 

“Time-time for what?” Nero mews. Nico cocks her head, asking:”Didn’t Griffon told you about the Nightmare in Capulet? He asked me to help him with hunting it, and we made a promise to strengthen our relationship.”

Nero doubts about that, because he has saw a lot of human breaking their vows, whether they were friends or lovers. Griffon sighs at his silence, explains further. ”A faithful promise creates strong bonds between souls, it’s the most powerful link between living creatures; however, most humans are too stupid to make a proper promise.” 

Miserably, that perfectly interprets what happened to Nero: They trusted a false man and his lie, resulted in the exile of his. He wants to refuse them and runs away, just like he did in the past three months. But when he raises his head, he sees Dante in the dining room, handing out the small jar of orange jam to the ladies; it reminds Nero about their small talk before meeting the blue bird.

Was that a promise, in some way? From how desperate Dante was, and how he replied, Nero thinks the answer is positive. The realization makes his mind ease. He turns back to the bird and the collie waiting for his response. "I have a request.” He exclaims, tail pointing to the sky like a victorious sword. “I’ll make the promise -- only if I get to punch it in the face.”

The others only stun for a few seconds before laughing hard, Griffon is the first to stop, asking for the serious business. “Now, Nero the cait sith, would you join our force and hunt the Nightmare with us, in the name of Mother Nature?”

As cliché as it sounds, especially with the extravagant narration by Griffon, Nero answers with his full heart: “Yes, I will.” He expect to feel anything, such as power surging through his body, or his size growing larger, but none of that occurs, to his disappointment.

Instead, a large hand holds him around his waist, lifting him into a pair of firm and steady arms despite Nero’s growling protest. “It’s good to see you guys having fun together, but unfortunately, I’ll be the wet blanket that interrupts your party. Nico, your moms are waiting!” The last sentence raises a delightful bark out of the dog, meanwhile Griffon lets out a loud caw as goodbye, leaving the rest in the yard.

 

────

 

Their neighbors left after a few more minutes, leaving the two in this oversized house. Nero always think it weird for Dante living alone in it, but decides not to bring it up. 

First, he knows that human has tons of secrets, most of them should never be revealed til they meet their end. But the most important reason is that he couldn’t speak when he had time to ask, then when he turned into a human, he is occupied with the memory, in which he encounters a man with cherry soda-- both his savior’s body shape, scent match Dante’s. Considering that Dante red over other colors, it feels more likely to happen. 

But how could he not mention about this? “I have seen you before” or anything like that? Also, Nero spent three months to walk from Fortuna to Capulet. What’s he doing in a city filled with criminals and conservative people? 

“So, I guess your first welcome party goes pretty fine?” Dante asks, holding a white plastic bag in his hands. Nero, who fulfills his promise, is munching on another crepe with blueberry jam and cream cheese in human form, nodding. He stares at Dante and whatever is in his hands, making small noises that resembles “what’s that?”. 

Dante gives him a smile, “Well, I told the girls to bring me something for the next cooking video, and they didn’t let me down. Behold.” He does a dramatic ta-da gesture before taking it out.

Nero’s nose wrinkles. It stinks. “What’s that?” He swallows the remains of his snack, trying to stay away from the box in Dante’s hands. The older man remains undaunted, opening it and…… directly tastes it with a spoon in his hands. Now Nero is absolutely startled, his tail burst into a large brush and hisses: “Wh-don’t eat that! How can you eat something smells like…… like……” He stammers for a moment, then he realizes he had never seen this kind of……food? 

“What, can’t put your thoughts into words?” The man in red chuckles, Nero has a feeling that, Dante is making fun of him by eating that yellow and white junk. “It’s not poisonous--and it has a name. Have you heard of durian?” 

Confused, Nero shakes his head. Dante gives him a look, the sly look that makes Nero squirms uncomfortably, feeling ignorant and helpless against a box of durian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a [twitter](https://twitter.com/rox_freeze). Feel free to drop by and chat.


	3. Durian Pancake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First times are always exciting. Still, Nero needs to be more careful, because there are too many things unknown lying around, and some of them are very menacing......

"I don’t think this is a good idea, Dante.” Nero tries to protest, but the man in red insists to have him wearing a marine blue apron. It fits him well, but the younger still feels uncomfortable, especially when Dante walks behind him to tie it up.  
“I thought you want to give it a try?” His cat ears twitches to avoid Dante’s warm breath. “Don’t worry, you don’t need to touch or taste it unless you’ve changed your mind--trust me, you will.”  
Nero huffs at his words. Maybe the durian smell has dispersed since his nose is getting used to it, still, when he sees that gooey, yellow pile emitting odor, his cat-instinct says absolutely NO. He can’t understand why he’d oblige when Dante suggests that he could use another helping hand, despite it was exactly what he wanted to do.

His eyes traces patterns on the apron, making out white thorns entangling with each other. Oddly, the spikes remind him of the vet, Vergil’s sharp eyes and grayish, white hair. “Is this Vergil’s?” Without thinking twice, he asks. 

Obviously, he’s right; because the hint of blue in Dante’s eyes are gone as he finishes his question. But the latter hides it with a smile, before Nero can make an apology. “Yep. At least that was meant for him to wear.” 

_So Vergil never wears it,_ Nero thinks. _and they have lived together……before._  
Although his latest encounter with Vergil was short and bizarre--mostly because of Griffon breaking in in the middle-- he still managed to remember his face. Nevertheless, he had noticed that, aside from the hairstyle, preference for color and opposite attribution that differentiate one from the other, Dante and Vergil share many similarities in appearance. 

Nero concludes that they are basically brothers, or twins. However, considering how awkwardly they interacted with each other, and Dante’s negative reaction from earlier, he’d think it better not to ask. Maybe next time.  
He watches as the elder takes out batter from the fridge. “You’re making crepe with durian?”

“Not really. It has a specific name as durian pancake.” The cook replies. “You’ll have to make crepes while I’m dealing with that bowl of durian flesh.”  
“How much do you need, then?” Nero asks, turning on the stove as he had done this a thousand times. He feels a little disappointed because Dante’s expression hasn’t changed a bit, visibly unconscious of Nero never did this before because of his sophisticated acts.  
“I need two.” The ungrateful man replies, and turns back to work without paying more attention to Nero, who pouts at him and waves his tail widely. He really doubts if Dante deserves his generosity for a second, until the scent of freshly baked crepe reminds him that it needs to be flipped properly.  
The work itself isn’t too troublesome, since Nero had been watching Dante cook this morning; and as a fast learner he is, he does complete his task within a few minutes. “Dante, I--”  
“You’re done? Alright then.” This time Dante turns to smile at……the crepe he made, not him. “I’ll take the rest, since you don’t like the smell.” He reaches out to the plate, but Nero’s hand won’t budge. The man gives him a confused look. “What?”

Nero just stares at him, tail impatiently hitting against the counter. “I think my efforts worth more than just let you taking it without a word--”  
His sentence is cut with a very confused, high-pitched squeal. Obviously, Dante reads his meaning in the worst wrong way possible, and goes after his moving, sensitive tail. His legs almost give out on the contact, and Nero’s face is immediately flushed with how embarrassed he is. “DANTE!” He hisses as soon as the sinful pleasure shooting up his spine fades.

“What? I thought all cats like that?” The man lets go of Nero’s fluffy tail, whose owner hugs it to his torso as if he had just been severely sexual harassed. Well, in some ways, he did just got harassed by Dante. Who would pet a cat in the tail as they don’t fully recognize each other as good friends? Not mentioning that the condition is worsen by that Nero has bad memories about humans. About how he had to fight for his life and run, to trigger his power and turn into a human to escape.  
Nero scoffs at his discourteous behavior. “You think I’m an easy cat, huh? Like a pet kitty who seeks for snuggles from everybody without putting their human at first place? Guess what--I’m not that shameless.” For a moment he wants to say whore, but thinks better not.  
First of all, cats do like to be pet, it only depends on who’s doing it. Secondly, he just screamed in a combination of mewling and moaning, and Dante’s hand, as a matter of fact, is impossible for Nero to resist. It reminds him of a warm, yellow room and a white towel on his head, the hand rubbing his human hair and cat ears until they’re mostly dried. He wants to make the scene more clear, but three months of feral life results in loss of any knowledge that is not related to survival.  
While Nero is stuck in his little musing, ears turning back and hugging his fluffy tail to his body, Dante manages to explain his action from earlier: “Well, sorry for offending you, kid. Didn’t know that’s considered impolite--I haven’t kept a cat before, and the only cat that I’ve touched is a cat in the cafe.” 

His word leaves Nero bewildered. “You’ve never had a cat?”  
“Not even once.” Dante says casually, wrapping mashed durian with whipped cream.  
“But--the way you take care of me, I mean, a cat……”  
“That’s what Vergil told me to do, I just kinda remembered everything. Except _that_ , of course.” He makes a gesture towards Nero’s tail, escaped from his hands and swirling back and forth.  
Nero glares at him with doubt, but doesn’t say anything. His accusation was based on the thought that Dante had dealt with many cats, thinking Nero as nothing special but one of them; and as a smart brat he is, a rather sarcastic part of his mind jokes: _maybe you’re still an attention whore, just trying to act like you aren’t one._  
He feels embarrassed, and his cheeks betray him by flushing madly red in front of Dante. “Alright, you won.” He scowls at the amused man, who just folds the durian pancake into a perfect, soft-edged cuboid. “I have to go, the chickie is meeting me at three.” 

When he turns to the door, Dante starts: “Hey.” 

“What?” Nero answers, not really paying attention to another possible joke.

“So you really forgot everything, huh?” He hears Dante taking out knife and fork, and the smell of durian becomes a little stronger. "Except for the cherry soda thing…… Nevermind. Maybe I’m asking for too much.” He whispers when it comes to the last sentence, but Nero’s feline ears capture every single word.  
At first Nero wants to claim he’s wrong, but when he tries to find an argument, it hit him that for the past few weeks, some shattered memories have been hunting him since he moved into Dante’s house: The man in red holding a can of cherry soda, heavy rain, gas station. Obviously, they have met before Nero becomes a stray cat, at that very horrible night. Nero hates this feeling of his past not being his, but a story told by someone else. He feels offended, actually.  
“Sounds like we were best buddies, weren’t us?” He hisses in a ironic tone. “That’s unbelievable-- in what world would a friend leave another in the rain, until he shows up at your garage, battered and passing out?”

Dante is stunned, eyes slightly widen and mouth opening to debate, but Nero knows that he is just rampaging, letting the steam out, and Dante probably realizes as well. When he expects Dante using a rather humorous attitude to whip away his unusual rage, the man surprises him with a sincere apology: “I’m sorry. I tried, but I didn’t find you-- I didn’t know that you were a cat.”

Things have got to the point that Nero cannot understand what Dante is talking about, he is apparently missing a lot of clues. If available, he wants to sit down and force the man to spit out anything that he knows. Unfortunately, he hears the annoying sound of bird beak knocking at the window. Seems like Griffon arrives earlier than he thought. “Forget it,” He mumbles out. “you can’t always rub people on the right side. And I’m overreacting as well, guess I’ll just go and chill--” 

He heads for the backyard, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Nero shifts to stare at Dante, who looks back in a calm, understanding expression, but doesn’t get rid of him completely because he is secretly craving for touch, as he had just realized.  
“Is it okay if I touch your forehead?” He hears Dante asking, the next moment his torso burns with how affectionate his voice sounds. Nero pause for a moment to think how to reply positively without being too out of character, eventually he turns away, giving a small nod as a silent yes.

Dante's palm is surprisingly big, planting itself between Nero's fluffy ears and manage to touch them both, rubbing them in small circles. He can feel calluses on those fingers against his sensitive ear tips, meanwhile his tail clings onto Dante's arm, loosely wrapping around it.

It feels heartwarming, Nero finds himself protected by the presence of the hand, growing dependent on its owner. He whines weakly when Dante retreats, his tail refusing to let go. Dante only replies with a smile: "Your friend is still waiting, remember?" His grin suddenly grows evil: "Or do you want to let him see you scream again?"

That does it, Nero is fumed again all of a sudden. Refusing to reply, he grabs a piece of pancake that Dante cut off from the edge, stuffing it into his mouth before untying the apron and leaving. He doesn’t catch Dante’s grin, too startled by the sudden burst of exotic sweetness in his mouth, which goes pretty well with what he thought was odor.

“Took you long enough, princess.” Griffon jokes when Nero is finally standing in the yard. “Enjoying your afternoon tea?”

With a _poof_ he turns into a cat, casually waving his tail. “Well, not bad.” 

“Picky picky. If I were you, I’d die for his food, you know?” Griffon launches into the sky. “Come on, going to meet the girl. We’re doing the patrol today.“

────

Ten minutes later, Nero is strolling down the street with Nico, who gets extremely excited and babbles endlessly about Dante and his Youtuber career. Griffon, who has experienced too much of her fangirling, decides to let Nero suffer alone and fled to the other side of town.  
"So my mums were once invited to the stream, and they made cookies together. After that some freak thought Trish was his girlfriend and started to go behind Lady, you know what happened next.“  
Nero laughs. According to Nico, her mothers are outstanding police officers, that guy must have played into their hands.  
"After that, he didn’t give up and became a hater, which seemingly failed.” Nico ends her story in a delighting tone. “Because he chose the day when Dante’s homemade jelly pre order starts.”

“He’s growing famous, isn’t he?” Nero half jokes, half compliments. He really likes Dante’s strawberry jelly as well, but to hell will he admit it to the man. Nico gives him a look before she answers. “Nero, you really don’t know how lucky your are. Dante had said that he didn’t want another creature in his house, all of us were startled when he said he’d adopted a cat--”  
“ ‘Allowed a cat into his house’, to be honest." Nero corrects her. “I was a domestic cat, and I haven’t recognized him as my human.”

Nico pauses, before asking carefully. “You still want to find your human?” While speaking, they have reached a crossing. Griffon is on the west, so the two go for the east. When they pass through a pile of garbage with two dead rats lying within, he says:” They are abroad studying. In Japan. They send me to a neighbor’s house and……things went wrong. He lied to them, telling them that he had kept many kinds of animal before, and that he will take good care of me.” 

But in the end, the abusive behavior of his forced Nero to run away from Fortuna-- Nero decides to keep this to himself. He has worried enough about the consequences, about how heartbroken would Kyrie and Credo be when they find him missing. But he also know that if he stayed, he would surely die in that maniac’s hands.

The Collie lets out a small whine of sympathy, before falling into a moment of silence. Obviously Nico doesn’t know how to react to the serious issue Nero had gone through. Secretly letting out a sigh, he attempts to change the topic. “I think I’ve met him at Fortuna.”

Nico’s ears perk up, visibly surprised. “Really? But my moms never told me that he had official tours there. Fortuna is known for its conservative attitude and xenophobia, they may even cast outsiders away by force.”

"I lived in there, Nico. I know how hostile they were.” Nero starts to tell Nico about the shattered memories he had. They continue walking during their chitchat, greeting a few stray cats and dogs in their route, which are mostly friendly to the pair. When they ask about a huge, black cat, a few of them note that they have seen one about two weeks ago. 

“That’s around the time you were brought into Dante’s house. It’s still looking for you.” Nero nods at the Collie’s words. “See if we can find it’s trail, footprints or whatever else-- it can’t get totally anonymous with a large body like that.”  
Their patrol continues, after a few more miles, they’ll meet Griffon at the end of town, and they resume talking as both of them relax.

“What happened after the guy at the vending machine noticed you, then?” Nico asks, before suddenly getting very excited: ”Oh wait, you said that guy you saw was in red. Could he be Dante?”

“I assume he was. It hadn’t came to me when his brother sent him a whole bunch of cherry soda, but ultimately it happens.”

“Why don’t you just ask, then?” The Collie’s tail is wagging so fast that Nero thinks it as a rotor attached to Nico the helicopter. He tries to imagine her taking off, but that would bring disaster to the whole Capulet, so he deposits the thought. “But what if he wasn’t the guy? It’ll be so embarrassing.”

“YOLO, cool boy. Strike the iron while it is hot!” 

Oddly, her words sound predictive to the cait sith. His nose picks up a wicked, rotten smell of wood, growing stronger and stronger; Nero’s fur stands up, Nico, on the other hand, is distracted by the sound of wings flapping. “Griffon!” She cheers.

Two incidents happen at once. Nico sees Griffon at the other end of the lane, yelps happily and lounge for the bird. Nero, who smells something dark and menacing, jumps to the other side. 

Terror descends, almost taken him by coincidence; luckily, only a strand of Nero’s white fur has been rubbed off, the rest of his body remains intact. Nico stops by Griffon’s side, turning around to growl at the dark figure attacking them. It was the size of a Maine Coon, but covered in pitch black, and its figure very distorted that its fur seems like beams of shadows instead of an actual entity.

“Jackpot.” Nero mutters to himself, before hissing at Griffon: “Hey chicken! Go and find help! We’re not going to last long like this.” He hates the fact, but the composition of his team is pretty useless against it. Griffon, as a nightmare, cannot hurt his kinds. During the walk, Nico confessed that she has never fought before; and Nero, being the only member who has both the experience and power to fight an actual nightmare, is a deadweight because……he is afraid.  
As to prove his words, the shadow aims for him, who immediately dodges at light speed. The grass withers upon the black cat’s claws, turning into a disgusting color of sick purple.  
It’s grown larger than Nero remembered, hissing at him directly. _I found you. You betrayed me. Die for what you have done._  
Nero snarls at the unpleasant thought floating out with it words, when he sees Griffon still in the air, he roars: “Find whomever that is useful! Now!” 

He knows where this nightmare comes from: an unfortunate soul that was crashed in the very house that made his life miserable. Last time he faced this monster, he was filled with feral, hungry adrenaline of animal, so he could manage to confront with it like a beast. This time, however, domestic life spoils him, leaving Nero vulnerable against this merciless opponent. 

One thing Nero hates about being a cait sith is that their power comes from positive thoughts and mind. They can’t find motivation through bloodthirst, greed or unreasonable wrath like human does, personally he thinks that’s why cait siths are going instinct; they can’t adopt to the cruel reality that the weak is the prey of the strong. Backing off from the claws, he stops when an empty glass hits his attacker in the head. _It’s Nico._ He thinks to himself. _She’s doing her part, at least she’s trying to._

Also, Griffon is nowhere in sight. Nero would rather believe that he is seeking for assistance, probably from the “V” guy he’d mentioned before. Although Nero really doesn’t know what kind of edgy name that is.

And most importantly, Dante. If he dies here, Dante will have to come and collect his dismantled flesh, either in tears or in the deep melancholy when he realized that Nero was hiding something from him-- what’s worse, he may have to face this horrible being. It can’t be happening. He can’t give up. 

Carefully approaching it, Nero starts, “Hey, big girl.”

The black cat pauses, before growling lowly at him. He forces himself to stay still. "Sorry for wasting two weeks on my business without noticing you in advance. I hope that you are still able to keep up--”

He dodges another minor attack, despite being carefree and smug as always, Nero notes the difference between he and the other cat’s strength. Not only has it grown larger, its power is increasing as well. Nero could bear a few claws and ran away after their fight a few weeks ago, but this time he is not ever certain if he could survive after one fetal attack. Not mentioning that nightmares’ power is poisonous to living creature. 

Nico, who is completely ignored by their foe, is digging out anything that is throwable as her weapon. It’s not doing actual damage, but enough to distract the cat. After a piece of newspaper blocks its visual and almost results in Nero’s successful attack, it growls: _Contemptible cowards!_

The two, however, are totally unfazed. Griffon has warned them about how powerful the nightmares can be, especially after absorbing a lot of hate and anger. Most magicians and siths fail to conquer a nightmare because they are provoked by its words or behavior, which results in the rapid growth of their enemies. Even though, Nero starts to feel a little tired, his movements become a bit slower, paws a little numb from constantly jumping and rolling. His fur is heavily stained with stinky dirt. 

Speak of dirt, the soil around them is gradually getting polluted by this nightmare; what’s worse, he starts to hear the grass and land screaming in pain. By any means, they shouldn’t be fighting for too long, either will they exhaust themselves or the land beneath them will die out thoroughly from the nightmare’s pollution. So Nero shouts out to the Collie: “Nico! Go back!”

At first he expects that he must struggle to keep up with her, but Nico is clever enough to notice his unusual status and dashes forward, picks him up by the neck, then runs for their dear life. Nero is thankful of her consideration, but right now he doesn’t have time and strength to be more appreciative. 

She keeps running for a few blocks, filling Nero’s ears with the sound of her claws scratching the ground. Part of him hopes that they would bump into Griffon and the savior he brings, but his daydream is ruined as the cat leaps, blocking their way to the north. Nico curses in stray dogs’ dialect, her growls mixed with huffs and puffs. 

_Pathetic,_ The horror looming over them teases, _do not think that I’m letting you go like last time, Nero. You left me dying in that room, you need to pay for it._

Letting him down, Nico spits out: “Quit it, big girl. If I find a log and blame it for everything, you’ll smash it to pieces as well.”

_Because you know nothing about him. If you listen to me, you’ll understand how wicked and filthy he actually is._ The black cat insists, lowering itself as if it’s ready for another round. 

At first Nero is worried that Nico will blindly try to bite it, or do anything that may result in hurting herself, but she doesn’t. Instead, she makes an innocent, curious face that would make any human melt : “Why don’t you tell me, then?”

For a moment, the black cat is ready to say something. Meanwhile Nico gives Nero a look, a look that asks him to come up with something, the bigger the better. Nodding slightly, the cat starts to call for any nymphs available.

A few of them reply his request, enough for him to impress the black cat, just a little. On the other hand, the said beast makes a few confused sounds: ”He…… and I, we were put in cages. Then a human comes, he leaves…… but I couldn’t. It’s his fault.”  
“But he didn’t hurt you in any possible way, did he?” Nico questions. At this point Nero knows exactly what comes next, and he is ready for it.

The cat freezes, every fur on its back stands straight, and becomes very, very outrageous afterwards. It aims for Nico’s fragile, fur-wrapped neck and attacks, but Nero gets in the former’s way, claws glowing a spectral blue as they find their way into the nightmare’s form, tearing the black substance.

It roars in fury, but Nero doesn’t get a chance to celebrate his small victory as something very large, distorted, pitch black twitches besides him. A large knife extended from the enemy’s limb, a few centimeters away from his stomach. Without thinking, he yells: “Nico, step back! Don’t get close!” 

There’s a flash of yellow, strangely resembles the color of durian-- Nero laughs mentally at this thought-- and he’s sent flying across the air, his head and back colliding heavily with the solid ground. 

Struggling to open his eyes, Nero sees Nico, who tries her best to stay away from the creature. _Your friend is dead,_ It claims delightfully, _it must be so painful to die under my hate. Why don’t you try it yourself, then?_

He hears Nico barks in rejection, then something crashes into the nightmare’s already damaged form. From how loud it sounds, it is clearly a large metal piece that may be too heavy to lift by a dog. Nero wants to get up, but he feels dizzy, so dizzy that he thinks that he heard Griffon’s untimely joyful cawing: “BARBECUE TIME!”  
Suddenly there’s another flash of blue, followed by deep rumbling of thunder and another enraged howl of the nightmare.

Something, more exactly, someone just picked him up. Nero sneezes from the dirt covering his nose, before a large, calloused hand wipes it away. A hand that is awfully nostalgic. Unbelieving, Nero looks up.

It is Dante, holding him in his arms, carefully examining his injuries. As much as Nero doesn’t want to confess, those concentrating, gentle blue eyes make him melt, effectively soothing his tensed body. “Shouldn’t let a boy do a man’s job, should I?”  
Nero simply rolls his eyes, since Dante can’t understand cat language. He hears cane clanging on their right, turning his head to see a slender man with black, slightly curling hair, dressed in dark vest and gray sweatpants. When seeing those magical tattoos covering his whole torso, Nero has no doubt about the man’s identity: he must be V, Griffon’s human. 

V notices him lying in Dante’s arms, shooting him a weird look and a haste “Greetings”, then focus on helping Griffon to contain their foe. The black cat seems more alarmed since the two showed up, its eyes specifically locking on the man in red. He wants to warn Dante, but V warns him before he could. “Please spare your attention from that damsel in distress. We are yet freed from this crisis.”

“Crisis, you said?” Dante replies with a chuckle. “Can’t ask for a more perfect date when my middle name is ‘dangerous’.” 

“How about living up your fame and be a useful helper, Dante?” The bird yells. Nero is confused, why are they all depending on Dante to handle this nightmare and how can he do that? Stuff it with his homemade jam until it can’t walk?  
His ridiculous assumption stops when he sees what Dante is holding in the other hand: a white gun that goes pretty well with his silver hair, when Nero looks down at Dante’s thigh, he sees another gun holstered to his left. He wants to hurt a mythical creature with guns? Unless……

“Stop glaring at me like that, kid.” He hears Dante’s soft, decisive voice above his ears. “I’ll start to think that you are worried about me.”  
He’s lowered into V’s hands, the thinner man’s grip is firmer than he has imagined. But what surprises him more is the way Dante lifts both guns, wasting no time on firing his first bullet into the cat’s wound. It hisses, but when another bullet pierces its shoulder, it mewls in frustration. 

Then it does something that is completely out of the blue: merging into a puddle of darkness, sliding into a nearby sewer. Nero squeals mentally at this outcome, squirming in V’s hands. V frowns at him. “There’s no need to be haste. Thanks to you, we have a fair beginning of a hunt.”

He’s not convinced, though. Until Dante straps his weapons back and comes to pick him up again, accidentally touching his wounded back. The cat hisses in pain, trying to turn into human and walk on his own. As soon as he transforms, he feels blood trickling down his neck and back; those damage are not fatal, what really concerns him is his stomach, hit by the nightmare’s blade--

“How?” He mutters out as he finds his front intact. But it did hit him, considering those scrapes. Despite that siths are natural enemies to nightmares, Nero cannot be immune to damage caused by them. Suddenly, his brain links something between this abnormality with a minor detail. 

Speak of the devil, Dante casually approaches him, a playful smirk on his face. “What, cat got your tongue? Not even a simple ‘thank you’ for saving your fluffy ass?”  
Nero sighs, but he spits his mind out anyway: “What should I say? ‘Thank you for helping me out after I almost got killed’, or ‘Thank you for giving me your glorious invincible buff and send me out to danger’? Seriously, are you playing with me or what? Why would you send me here when you have the trick to blow it off in one go?”

The other man in black seems like he wants to lecture, but Dante gives him a look that says “Leave it to me”, so he stays silent. Meanwhile Griffon leads Nico to him, so the three move on after saluting them, leaving Nero and Dante standing by the road. Nero fixes his clear, blue eyes on Dante’s face: ”You’re a magician.”

“Yeah. Since you didn’t tell me that you’re a cait sith in the beginning, I guess we’re even.” He pouts, immediately turning it into a victorious smile when Nero can’t find a point to prove he’s wrong. “Come on, we still need to deal with your head and back. Let’s get comfy at home and talk-- would you like more durian pancake? I have left some on the table.“

Nero’s tail stands up automatically, when he is trying to push it down, he earns a large hand ruffling his hair and soft ears. “D-don’t get cocky.” He blushes while snarling threatening words out, “I’m not done with you, Dante!”

“Of course you aren’t, so you’d better cut to the chase-- woah.” Before he finishes, Nero is already dragging him towards their house. As unconscious as he is, Nero just recognizes Dante’s house as their “home”-- and Dante as his family member.

──────

A big problem pops up when Nero tries to clean his body. Since he’d wasted all his power during the battle and the last bit for turning into human, he has to rest for approximately a night before enabled to transform again.

He has only bathed once, after meeting the man (very possible to be Dante) at the gas station. Injuries in the back of his head is easily handled, while he can’t really reach the wounds on his back. Embarrassed, and wanting to sort things out with Dante as soon as possible, he secures his lower half with a towel, wet tail dripping on the floor and runs to Dante, who is originally messing with his phone but is stunned after seeing him. 

“Hey, “ Nero starts. “ can you help me with washing my back?” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhhh finally an update comes up, sorry for keeping everyone unsatisfied  
>  I’ll try to keep it up, since English is not my native language, I need extra time to make sure it matches my writing quality as much as possible ; ;  
>  Also [twitter](https://twitter.com/rox_freeze)


	4. Strawberry Daifuku

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Memories, and a unpleasant visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is jumping back and forth between timelines so, brace yourself for often switches!  
> Also, there seems to be much tension than I expected, and I am not really familiar w/English writing so some parts seems a little lame......uuu  
> Anyway, please enjoy as much as possible, and leave some comments to let me know if u like it or not.

Nero sits on a small chair, naked except for a towel wrapping around his waist, tail swishing uncomfortably underneath. 

“Oh dear, this is severer than I thought.” Says the man who is currently wiping dirt and mud away from his back, with surprising patience that Nero thinks it’s almost out of character. After a small hiss of pain almost stops Dante from doing his work, he jokes: “Guess your buff-added pancake has its downfall, huh?”

“You only eat one little piece, though.” Dante chuckles. “Not really my fault anyway.”  
“And what you gonna do if I didn't?”  
“Add a little durian into milk then ask you to drink or something, I dunno. It has to be durian, no matter if you're eating or drinking it.” 

Nero is a hundred percent unconscious about how his tail occupies Dante's busy hands. It's swishing around his wrists so frequently, that the man has to gently remove it to continue. “Almost done, do you need help bathing? Or I’ll leave you to it.”

_You’re soaked. Better warm yourself up as soon as possible, will ya?_

Oddly, Nero hears Dante’s voice but it doesn’t come from the man in front of him. “I can handle myself.” He replies.  
“Good.” The man says before standing up, about to reach the bathroom door when Nero hears him speaking again.

_If you need anything, just call me. I’ll be outside._

“Hey, Dante.” Nero is not certain about why he calls out for something that obviously doesn’t come from him, and he’s blushing for no reason-- but he spits it out: “Thank you…… for, uh, well…… everything.” 

For a moment, Dante just stays where he is, eyes slightly widen in confusion. When Nero’s fluffy ears starts to fall back in frustration, he smiles. “No problem. Catch ya later.”

It is after Nero being left alone in the bathroom that he notices how heated his body is, and how fast his heart is pounding against his chest. Turning the water lukewarm, he tries to cool himself down as much as possible.

────

When he’s out of the shower, he sees a man in black, sitting on his favorite linen sofa -- it’s V. When his eyes meet Nero’s, he greets the sith with a simple nod. On the other end sits Dante, slightly annoyed by the other’s presence. Nero remembers that Nico told him about how Dante likes to stay alone.

Besides that, he finally notices how admirable when the man dresses up. His red coat covering dark, blue shirt makes his form a little larger than usual, accompanied by pants that emphasize on his perfect long legs. His mentally drooling only gets worse when Dante’s gaze lock on his form, unfortunately clothed after he’s done cleaning himself. 

Siths seems to pick clothes that match their personality and fashion taste, and is affected by their fur’s status. When Nero turned into a human when he was soaked, his clothes were wet as well. 

“Glad to see you in good shape, Nero.” V’s ghostly tone yanks him back into reality. “I hope that your injuries are not bothersome, considering that I am going to be.”  
Dante frowns at the comment. “I thought you said ‘I need to talk to the boy and it’s about something significant’, that’s why I allow you to stay. If it’s not an emergency then I’ll reconsider--”

Nero senses something ominous in both Dante’s tone and the black man’s glinting eyes, but before he could brace himself for anything, V has already opened the Pandora box in his memory. “I’d like to hear about what happened before you arrived at Capulet.”

For a moment, Nero blacks out. He can’t either see or hear, despite how impossibly wide his eyes open after being frightened by the man’s unintentional words. “N-No.” He mutters, more like speaking to himself rather than the two in front of him. “I mean, I don’t even--” 

All of a sudden, he is overwhelmed. His mood is worse than ever because battle from earlier tired him out; this is the last moment for him to talk about his past. His ears fall back, silently begging that V will give up. 

The slender man, however, seems to be persistent. “I understand that my questions may be disturbing to you, but once you provide more information about this nightmare, we’ll be enabled to wrap this case up more efficiently. Thus, I demand any details that is available.”

If Nero was uneasy when V first asks about his past, then this additional demanding leaves him paralyzed. He falls into the dilemma that, this nightmare that he wishes to bring down originates from the most ugly moment in his memory, which should have never bother him again. 

When the pressure in his mind comes to the point that he is slightly bending to hide his vulnerable parts from V, who is instinctively recognized as an enemy, Dante decides to cut this situation to an end. Carefully approaching the young sith, he puts a hand on his shoulder, loosely gripping it. “V, we’re not ready for this, at least not today. Let us rest for a night and we’ll talk.” 

For a moment Nero’s last reasonable brain cell is worried about that V might be opposed of this idea, but the slim one nods eventually. “Be well.” He greets them before Dante lets go of Nero and walks him to the door.

As soon as the warmth on his shoulder is gone, Nero panics. It reminds him of the last touches that Kyrie gave him, before they closed the front door, fly to a place that Nero can never reach. He rushes to the nearest place where a familiar scent of human exists, resulting to be Dante’s room, and curls beside the man’s bed. The only sound in the room is himself breathing shallowly, his tail curling onto himself as the weakest comfort he can have.

After some moments, he hears Dante entering. Nero knows that he shouldn’t break into other’s room without asking, so he lowers his head in shame. However, Dante doesn’t do anything other than kneeling down and pets him between his soft cat ears. The silent contact brings him so much ease, that he feels a lot better. 

“Should have tell him to come back tomorrow in the first place. Sorry about that.” Says the man in front of him. Nero wants to tell him that he’s fine, but he’s got a more important question to ask. “Why did you say ‘us’?”

“What ‘us’?” Dante seems bewildered, obviously forgetting his words from a few minutes before. Nero inhales, raising his voice for a few notches to be properly heard: “You just told V to let _us_ rest. Can’t your thick skull remember things?”

“Hey, at least that I remember how to help you out. As for your question, we’re on the same boat, aren’t we?”  
“Not really.” Without second thoughts Nero answers. “After all, I’m the one--”

_After all, I’m the one that goes homeless after today. You, however, still has a family._

He stops at the sudden voice popping out from his head. It sounds ridiculous, but he seems to have talked with Dante like this, and this thought is not as unpleasant as the other parts of that night. Most importantly, he would like to learn about his probable encounter with Dante. Maybe it’s a good point to start with, if he has to provide more information in the future. “Hey, Dante.” He raises his head to look at the said man, looking back at him with faith. “You said we’ve met before, right?”

Dante’s reaction is more fierce than he imagined. His hands flies onto both sides near Nero’s head, pinning him to the wall in a swift move. Startled as he is, his tail finds its way up Dante’s legs, wrapping around his waist.  
“Hell yes.” He half whispers, half chuckles. “How much did you……?”  
Nero blinks, unable to explain why Dante is all worked up about this memory thing. “Just some pieces that can’t be put together.” 

Oddly, being close to Dante like this feels comforting to him, Nero finally relaxes a little. “Hey, Dante.” He starts. “Maybe it’s a little too late to ask, but…… I want the details. Tell me everything you know.”

The other man seems relieved that Nero is less stressed, but immediately notices their inappropriate position afterwards, and gets very, very embarrassed that Nero can smell it. Standing up while pulling Nero along with him, Dante inspects him carefully. “Are you sure that you’re okay with this?”

“I don’t know, but since it’s about you and I…… It sounds less scary, somehow.” Nero, on the other hand, realizes that his tail is still nudging at Dante, immediately forces it back. 

The man in red seems stunned for a moment, but a sincere smile replaces his expression in a heartbeat. “Alright then. Take a seat, it’s gonna be long.”

────

When Dante noticed the blue shade buried in the shadow of a cold, concrete pillar, he almost thought that it’s a corpse. For a moment he just stared at the human-shaped thing, until his drink fell from the vending machine and startled it.

His face looked young, handsome, and most importantly, helpless. Under his soaked hood lays a pair of eyes that did not shine like a normal young man should had, completely without energy, without hope. What’s worse, Dante finds him trembling-- kid must have been left outside for a long period. 

Dante always thought being a stupid hero was a mistake, but if he didn’t take any actions, this boy wouldn’t be miraculously freed from his misery. So he inhaled, stepping closer. “Hey, kid.” He called out, kneeling down so their gaze could meet.

It’s hard to describe how wrecked he looked like. Those aquamarine eyes stared at Dante, but they weren’t actually seeing him; instead, they were fogged from whatever that left this kid visibly traumatized. His exposed arms were scattered with scratches and bruises, as much as Dante could distinguish, were more likely caused by colliding against furniture rather than beaten. 

These evidences quickly gathered in Dante’s mind, forming a proper story line: this boy must have been a victim of some domestic abuse, but he managed to escape before anything worse came to him. Nowhere else to go, he was forced to stay at this gas station as a temporary shelter. 

However, as thoroughly wet and weak as he was, Dante doubts if the kid can survive for long. He had to do something. “The name’s Dante. Wanna take you somewhere safe, can you stand up for me?” He spoke as gently and clearly as he could, finally got the younger’s full attention. “You’re soaked. Better warm yourself up as soon as possible, will ya?”

“Can’t.” His hope was gone when he heard how broken the boy’s voice sounded to his ears. Not that the kid’s gonna break at any moment; but that he sounded like a mindless machine beyond repair. “Legs……give out. Can’t.”

Dante regretted leaving his homemade snacks at the hotel-- if he had them with him, there’s surely one kind of them that would make the kid feel better. But there was no time, considering everything that might happen if he spent an hour driving back there and another hour to return. Also, he didn’t want to leave the kid alone, nor let him feel abandoned again. 

The answer was apparent, Dante thought when he looked at the cherry soda in his hand. “Here, drink this.” He shoved it into the kid’s soft hands. “It’ll bring you power, for sure.”

Those eyes examined the soda can’s pink appearance for a few seconds, before locking with Dante’s. “Promise?” The kid’s eyes were still covered by cold shades of gray, voice suspicious and emotionless, but undoubtedly expecting, hoping for a positive answer.

“Of course, I promise.” Dante replies decisively. Unaware of the kid’s identity, he only thought that this promise would enhance his spell, making sure the soft drink can support him. “C’mon, drink it before you’re chilled to death.”

Opening the can with Dante’s help, the kid submissively took a sip, tasting it with his tongue. The other man’s knees felt sore from putting his weight on them for too long, but he waited patiently for the younger one in front of him. Luckily, it only takes about two or three minutes for him to nod at Dante, a hint conveying that he’s ready to move. When Dante was about to reach out, he realized something, his arms halted in midair. “The name’s Dante, almost forget about that.”

He reached forward and helped the kid to stand up, the latter silently wrapping his arms around his shoulder. “……Nero.”  
“That’s your name?” Another nod. “Not a bad one. Alright, let’s get you outta here, Nero--”

────

“--Nero, hey.”  
The sith’s eyes snap open, finding both of them sitting on Dante’s bed, himself leaning against Dante’s shoulder, obviously falling asleep during the other man’s storytelling. Rubbing his eyes, Nero mumbles in his sleepy voice: “Sorry, can’t really control myself.”  
“It’s okay, kid. I’m starting to feel like my bed is more attractive than a few hours ago, too.” Dante stands up to get clothes for showering, before giving Nero a weird look. Normally, he would leave when Dante claims that he needs nothing more than his bed, a blanket and his gray cat plushie for the rest of the night. “Are you alright?”

Nero hesitates before shaking his head. “Thank you for spending time on telling me a bedtime story, but……” His word traces off, hugging his fluffy tail in his arms to cover the embarrassed flush on his face. 

Turns out that his body refuses to leave, too sated and secured to sleep alone; but the reasonable part of his brain knows that he would be intruding Dante’s private space, if he wants to stay. Looking at the man from under his eyelashes, he’s about to force himself when Dante gets his thoughts, this time rubbing his forehead to keep him seated. “Hey, don’t shit yourself. You’re always welcomed in here, as long as you don’t get grossed out by how messy my room is.” 

His comment evokes warmth in Nero’s chest, but the younger immediately hides it with a snarl: “Can’t believe that I’ve lowered my standard to meet yours.” Before he collapses into the mattress right after he is permitted to. Curling himself around the plushie, he sleeps peacefully disregard of Dante making noises in the shower.

────

Sitting on the hotel’s bed, Nero was properly dried, wearing his blue shirt and dark jeans. He found that he could hide his cat ears and tail with a little extra power, but it’s causing him mass discomfort at the same moment. Still, he decided it better not risk it, if he let the man freak out, he would probably not be able to provide further assistance.

Dante, who helped him out of the gas station, took him in his car and drove him to the hotel. “At first I planned a trip for two-- me and my brother. Now that he’s occupied, I think you can use the space.”

“……Thanks.” Nero was still trying to drink up the cherry soda, for some reason (He didn’t know about the “promise” thing back then), this so-called junk food according to Credo, worked effectively on his body. It almost felt like magic to him. Even after he finished the content, Nero was unwilling to let go of the soda can, occasionally tracing his fingers along its outline.  
He was suggested to use the bathroom first, as much as Nero hated water like any other cats, he knew he couldn’t just walk around with mud, staining the hotel and making Dante awkward. The man ensured him that he’d be in the room, so Nero obliged and entered the shower.  
As hairless as his human form was, water didn’t become a big trouble as he thought it would be. Drying himself with a large, white towel provided by the hotel, he sneezed loudly for a few times, resulting in soft knocking at the door. “Kid?”

He opened the door too quickly to stop himself from bumping into a surprised Dante, almost stumbled onto him. Nero blushed at his fully-opened shirt, looking away from his exposed chest.  
Unlike his squirming self, Dante pried him from his torso with an easy smile. “Took you long enough, I almost thought you’re drowned in the sink. By the way, I left some snack on the nightstand.”

Before Nero’s heated brain came up with anything, Dante already shut the door-- he could smell how sweaty he was, and the younger man sighed at the thought of causing him trouble. He was glad that Dante didn’t ask for where his coat went-- it was too much for indoor clothing. Nero reached for the bed, discovered that the seemingly king-sized bed can be actually split into two. In that way, he didn’t need to worry about accidentally spreading himself like a starfish during at night.  
Dragging the other bed across the floor carefully, Nero noticed a box resting on Dante’s nightstand, restoring several…… buns?

Picking the box up, Nero was certain that they weren’t buns. These little balls’ surface were white and slightly transparent, allowing him to see through something darker inside. Before asking if these were the “snack” Dante implied, he doubt if they were edible at all. 

Nero end up staring at them for about ten minutes or so, until Dante spoke from behind: “You’re trying to burn a hole into those daifukus?”  
“Those what?” 

“Daifukus. My father learned its recipe in Japan, gave it to me because I’m crazy about strawberries.” Dante explained. “He used to be a well-known chef in Capulet.” He picked the biggest daifuku in the box, taking a bite in front of Nero’s eyes.  
“Oh.” Although it was hard to relate “strawberry” with this daifuku thing, Nero didn’t know where his next meal was, and he needed to take in whatever he could eat. Thus, he took a smaller one, smelled it carefully before giving a very, very tiny lick. “Doesn’t taste like strawberry to me.” He frowned at the man. 

“It’s not my fault that you have such a small mouth.” Dante shrugged. Peaking at the remained half of daifuku in his hand, Nero finally saw the bitten strawberry, lying in the middle. So he boldly opened his mouth and bit down, tasting something mildly sweet, and the sour taste of strawberry, immediately decided that he liked this thing called daifuku.

After Nero politely claimed that he needed no more, Dante put the box back into the fridge provided by the hotel. When he thought that Nero wasn’t looking, his smug smile was fully gone, replaced by seriousness and grief. Actually, Nero didn’t really needed to see, as siths were born sensitive to living creature’s emotional status. 

Closing the fridge door, Dante only noticed him glaring at him when he turned around. “No worries, kid. My brother is just too busy to come along-- it’s nothing big.”

Oh. “I didn’t mean that.” Nero blushed, because he almost thought it that way. 

Dante seemed like he couldn’t care less, crawling into the other bed--which Nero supposed he’d be sleeping, since Dante put his luggage at the bed he was sitting on-- with leisure. “Besides, I think you need help more than I do. If you wanna call the police, or you need a drive to some relatives’ house, I’ll come up with a way.”

 _No, you can’t. Because I’m a fucking cat without knowing anyone else aside from my humans_ \-- Nero almost felt his tears gathering up in the corner of his eyes, while knowing that Dante was only trying to be kind. In the end, he only sniffled from the sour, stinging pain in his nose, and replied a quiet “Thank you” to him. 

In the morning, he would have to leave. He couldn’t let Dante take him to the police, because Nero was basically not a registered human-- he knew that humans without some kind of ID card cannot stay in a country, and would be arrested. He doubted if Dante would be worried about him, despite they had just met each other for a few hours. Maybe he could write a goodbye note with the hotel’s notepaper, but for now……he had suffered enough.

────

Nero drifted into a dreamless sleep, until he realized everything he just experienced was his past, and he wasn’t in the hotel anymore.

Opening his eyes, he’s met with a very innocent, cartoon cat face, and a pile of drool under its face. Nero silently adds washing it to his schedule, although he doubts that whether cat plushies like bathing or not.

Dante, on the other hand, is soundly asleep. It must be Nero’s hallucination or something, but the man seems to be spooning his leaner frame on the bed, unconsciously guarding him in his sleep. Nero frowns at the arm loosely caging him: if he wants to get up, he’ll definitely annoy his roommate.  
But wait. With the slightest rustle, he turns into the white ragdoll he is, and smoothly slips out from underneath Dante’s clumsy, heavy arm. Before leaving, he doesn’t forget to stuff the gray cat into that empty place between the man’s limbs. 

Crossing the house, Nero squeezed himself through the pet door, stepping into the yard. Last time when he met Griffon at here, he asked the bird to teach him about the techniques of listening to the voices of small nymphs and floral siths.  
According to them, Dante stopped visiting four months ago. Since then, their residence quality begun to fail, the condition not bad enough to cast them away, but rather left them complaining a little. 

Nero spend the next hour gardening in his human form, most of them are common herbs including mint, rosemary, he even sees some catnip in the corner. They still look fine, but the flowers in another corner aren’t that lucky: some of them are heavily infected or already died without being properly watered. 

The nymphs are visibly delighted, making happy noises around his dirt-stained pants, encouraging him through the link that only exists between mythical entities. His work goes pretty well, as the utilities required are all piled up in a corner of the backyard, usable after cleaning. He also finds some toys for children, judging from their color fading into an unnatural white, they must have belonged to Dante and his brother. He tries to imagine them pretend to be cooking in the yard, when a nymph comes closer. “Hi, my lady.” He greets her, wiping away sweat on his forehead.

Sitting on his forehead, she peers down at the garden with mild interest. Nero allows her action, continues to clean out overgrown grass and rocks that stop the plants from properly growing.

 

When Dante finds him, he is mewling happily from a sense of achievement and the foreign songs of nymphs, most likely a compliment to his hard work.  
At first, the man only seems to focus on Nero, so it took him a moment to put his attention on the garden. Dante stares at the mint, then at Nero, eventually locking his glare on a withered rose. “I thought you headed out with your friends.”

“We take the day off today.” Nero states, “I’d like to buy some seeds, or plants directly. The nymphs said that mixing chili with water can be a substitution of pesticide.”  
The man pauses, before giving him an uncertain smile: “Nero, I don’t think--”  
“It’s okay, I know the drill.” Nero answers with too much passion, that scares the other man a little bit. But it doesn’t stops him from spitting his thoughts out anyway: “--that you’ll be around for long. As for me, this task is mentally unbearable, that's why I never get it handled.”

The nymph on Nero’s head is gone at some point, and Nero wishes that she’s still there. He knows that the problem in his relationship with Dante is never solved, but Nero is such a coward that he refuses to remind himself. What’s worse, Dante has been giving out hints that, he would enjoy Nero’s company, but he doesn’t react to any of them.  
Dante inhales before he moves on. “I know that you don’t want to recognize me as your human.” Nero wants to deny, but no, he really, really doesn’t want to replace Kyrie and Credo with someone else. His rational self knows that they are the minor cause of today’s outcome, but he loves them so much, that Nero refuses to blame. 

More importantly, he really wants to give Dante a place in his mind. As he doesn’t want to admit, the man means a lot, even _more_ than his humans do. But how can any kinds of emotion between an animal and a human surpass family belonging? Even V, the other magician he knows, does not go further than being the human of Griffon. Nero’s ears fall back apologetically, but there’s barely anything he could do. The man avoids looking at him for a moment, Nero thinks he’s definitely going to turn around and leave, for sure.

However, when Dante speaks up again, he is left dumbfounded, even a little terrified. “Still…….I don’t want you to leave. You can stay as long as you want, or until you find somewhere else.”

Standing up, Nero frowns at him, widely waving his tail in disagreement. “What makes you think that I don’t like being here?” He wants to say “being with you” but thinks better of it, coming closer to face the other man. “It's not your fault, just me. I still love my humans.”

“They didn’t treat you well enough.” Dante snarls suddenly, and Nero is certain that he misunderstands something. “Hey, it’s not like what you think. My humans only takes a year or two in Japan and they will come back eventually, we’re just unlucky enough that someone bad took me--”

“What if they don’t?” Dante narrows his eyes. “What will you do if they just stay there, find a place to work and never come back?” 

Instinctively, Nero hunches himself and hisses, defending his human: “Don’t you dare offending them like this, asshole!” 

Dante doesn’t budge, nor does he reply to Nero immediately. At first, Nero thinks that he’s going to yell at him for how stubborn he is, but another thought breaks through his skull before that could happen: maybe, just maybe, Dante has his points. 

He has heard of stray cats losing their human either because they had to work or study. Although cats understand the difficulties human have to face, they are usually the most miserable victims in the end. Nero has never thought of himself as being kicked aside by his humans. But when Dante states out this possibility, his world starts to spin; disturbed, he uses both hands to cover his face.

His internal conflict only worsen when he caught Dante's face, shocked by his rage and guilty for making Nero burst out like this. Nero feels like crying, not only because he may lose Kyrie and Credo forever, but also hurting Dante's feeling accidentally. Nero opens his mouth to say something, but his nose stings too much, keeping him from making anything audible.

The other man shifts, kneeling beside him but doesn't do anything further. Nero tries to come up with anything, a word or something that doesn't leave the two hanging like this in the backyard. Unfortunately, his struggles only squeeze out tears, streaking down his cheek and leave Nero alone at the cliff of being fully heart broken. “I……I’ll be fine.” He forces himself to speak, disregarding how hoarse he sounds. “Guess I’ll go inside and chill--”

Suddenly, there’s something very warm around his shoulder, holding him close for a few seconds before letting go. It takes Nero another moment to realize that it’s Dante hugging him. Wiping his face clean, Nero finally stands up, following Dante into the house.

After the man’s comforting action, Nero decides to spend some time in his own room. As much as he owns Dante an explanation for his sudden short temper, he needs some time to brace himself. After dazing out for a good amount of time, a light _thud_ at the door awakes him from subconsciousness. Peeking out from the slit, Nero notices a small, ocean blue plate, before carefully opening the door and drags it inside. On the porcelain plate is a round, white hump that feels icy to his fingers.  
There’s nothing coming in along with it, not even a single note, but Nero gets the message. This man has been waiting for him, longer and more desperate than he had imagined. 

Soon the plate is left empty, pushed outside of the bedroom by a fluffy, white paw, which immediately retreats after it’s clear off the door’s closing range.  
In order to bury himself in the familiar scent of Dante, he decides it better to curl up as a cat. After that, he’ll sort things out with the other man… when he wakes up from this nap.

────

At that morning, when Dante woke up, Nero was already gone. He didn’t hear any rustle or see any evidence of stealth, so he assumed that Nero left without taking anything. Even the empty soda can had been thrown into the trash bin.

For no reason, he noticed a strand of white fur near the window. He tried to reach for it, but a breeze coming from the half-opened window took hold of it, and his fingers lost their grip. Shining in the brightest moment of a day, soon it became a barely visible spark in the blue sky. It was at this moment, that Dante started to think that he let something very, very important slip through his grasp. And, after he gave up to the last traces of Nero, he buried his face into his palms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/rox_freeze)  
> Don't worry, as written in the tags, it's an eventual romance&fluff, I promise. Because I can't literally write anything other than fluff, even if I want. LUL  
> BTW today is my birthday :3 Oh yiss


	5. Caramel Pudding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confessions. A ignorant case that causes butterfly effect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !Please note that there’s animal abusing mentioned in this chapter, if you have experience of keeping pets and feel uncomfortable about it, I’ll suggest that at least skip the specific part marked with ※※※.
> 
> I overheard this case from my friend, and I decided that I should leave an everlasting record with my writing. His behavior would not be forgotten, nor forgiven. Edited a little so it fits into the plot.

When cats has nothing better to do, or they feel stressed, they sleep. Nero assumes that it’ll work for him, but he couldn’t even lull himself to take a small nap. 

When he puts his head on his paws, he starts thinking about rushing to Dante and throwing everything on his mind out-- maybe getting some soothing strokes in between. But he’s afraid at the same time, afraid of Dante saying something else that hurts his feelings. 

Before he knows it, he’s peeking out from the door, twitching his ears to find Dante’s location. Hearing sounds coming from the dining room, he turns to find the man cooking with a pot. After Nero ensures that Dante is too focused to notice his existence, he sits down and stalks the man from distance, resting his tail on his front paws. If he can’t pluck up his guts and face him, he’ll at least find some peace by staying near. 

“You can come over if you’re interested.” He almost jumps at Dante’s words, hesitantly stalking into the space, jumping onto the dinner table. Now that he can inspect closer, Nero sees the content in the pot: milk, and Dante’s adding sugar into it. Tilting his head, Nero considers turning into human, casually asking some questions such as _what are you cooking_ or something like that before cutting to the chase, sort things out with Dante. However, he must have caught the specific pattern of Nero when he’s confused, because as soon as Nero’s pink tongue pokes out to lick his nose, he answers his confusion. “This is for making pudding. Feel free to watch, but I’m going to stay silent because I don’t usually speak in the clips-- aside from live streams, of course.”

_Oh._ Nero waves his tail at the explanation, silently watching as Dante pours the mixture into several small containers, putting the rest into the oven in a container filled with water. He stands up to follow Dante, figure stretching into the slim human as soon as his paws leave the surface. His heart is beating, head dizzy with how much adrenaline rushing through his brain.  
Yet he has to do it; Dante's acceptance sets his determination. He is not very certain that why he’s so eager at this moment, and considering the way his heart sinks and clenches when thinking about what he’s going to say, he is likely to break in the process. 

Sensing that Nero has changed his form while he's not looking, the man turns around with his casual, smug grin on his face: “Curious, aren't ya? But this time you'll need to have some patience, because it takes about forty minutes to--” 

Without a word, Nero steps into his personal space, looking into his clear, blue eyes. Although his fluffy ears falling back from fear, his urge still surpasses that, forming audible words that could be understood. “My humans’ neighbor, I know his name. It’s Agnus.” 

The first sentence is already draining his strength, Nero feels a burning wave rising up into his throat, feeling like he’s going to puke, but he ignores the feeling and keep going. “He told them he has experience in taking care of animals, and everyone believes that-- he keeps parrots, stray cats and dogs at home, while he studies to become a veterinarian.” 

He feels Dante tenses against him, a hand reaching up to pet his hair from behind. Nero leans closer, tail loosely curling around Dante’s wrist. What surprises him is that the man doesn’t scowl at his need of contact, and something in Nero’s instinct tells him that he should ask for more. “I tried to tell them I don’t like him, but he kept telling them it’s fine. By the time I didn’t have the ability to turn into human, let alone speaking my thoughts out.”

The man frowns, gently stroking him while asking: “They can see that you’re uncomfortable around him, can’t they?”  
That makes Nero’s heart clenches more, “Catnip. He used catnip and got me high, and told Kyrie and Credo that I was just a little nervous, everything would be fine as he and I get along.” The disgust in his word is oozing out so much that Dante unconsciously holds him closer by his head, as if trying to protect him from that evil man. Now they’re almost hugging each other, Nero can’t find a better chance to spit everything out, judging by how he’d last so far without feeling too bad by the reflection. “That worked out pretty well for him. He was granted with my humans’ faith, and on the day of departure, he brought me to his house.”

※※※

The place was too dark for any living creature-- it was Nero’s first comment. He felt depressed for not being able to object this outcome, and he was certain that if Kyrie saw this, she’d probably take him with them. His hope lasted for a few months until Nero learned that animals cannot travel abroad with human.

Agnus put his cage into a spare guest room, in which already had two dogs and one cat. As soon as he saw them, every cell in his brain started hissing, yelling at him to run away from the house. 

Both dogs were gagged with cloth. From the corner of their mouth, Nero saw some dark, sticky liquid dripping down leisurely around the material, and he decided it better not to analyze. The other black cat in the corner seemed to be sleeping, she was so skinny that her ribs were visible. 

Nero poked his paw out, using his claws to open the lock. He’d achieved mastery in human’s inventions, so it only took him a few seconds to pry it open, and he immediately snuck under the bed-- cat instincts, they believed that dark, narrowed places were perfect locations for hunting and hiding.  
However, he’s not the first intelligent creature in this house, nor was he the only creature that had to hide. 

He found a lot of rings covered in dust, as far as he could tell, the number was around thirty to forty. It couldn’t have been accessories, because the man didn’t wear any, and from visible fact, he was a man without taste. He didn’t spend too much time looking for clues, though.

After some searching, Nero found some feathers scattering around them, belonging to many kinds of parrots. Then, he brought the newest ring under the dim light, a hint of chill rushing through his body when reading the information on it. The bearer’s name was Birb, coming along with address, phone number, and most importantly: a human’s name.

All of those rings were coming from parrots-- Nero couldn’t ask, nor did he wanted to know where they have gone to. But the only important thing was that he’s in danger. He tried to open the door, but the knob wouldn’t budge, and Nero knew that it was the kind of door that required a key, or Agnus on the other side to open it. He sneaked back into the cage.  
His roommates were inactive. The dogs were heavily infected from wounds on their muzzles, so they had no interest to talk; the cat only snarled at him when Nero weakly spoke up. Agnus, on the other hand, never provide vital support other than a bowl of water. It’s already getting dirty, but he had no other choice.  
On the third day of this inhumane confinement, Nero knew where all those rings came from. Agnus opened the door, left it banging freely against the wall, throwing a bundle at the dogs in the other cage. It was something at the size of a fist, wrapped in a stained handkerchief. “A-another inferior! This would not please the lords, wh-why should I waste my time and money on this junk?” He scolded the unmoving lump in the cage, before closing the door again with a _thump._

The dogs attacked, wanting to rip the thing into pieces within a glimpse. Unfortunately, he dogs couldn’t take in too much with the injury possibly caused by that man, despite there’s food right in front of them. They end up dismantling it into tiny pieces and forced it into the corner of their mouth. Nero couldn’t see what was covered under the handkerchief-- until a bird claw with a tiny, silver ring was thrown out from the chaos, dropping at Nero’s side. There’s some bone and flesh attached to it. 

Nero didn’t eat that, not one bit. He only drank more water from the bowl. On the fourth day, his reluctance to eat that bird claw left him with almost unbearable hunger, but it had been taken by the black cat in the cage next to his. Seeing that she was awake, Nero tried to start a dialogue that may raise some useful information out of her. “Um…… so that’s the way he ‘feed’ us?.”

It got him some reaction from the uncaring roommate. “He always does that. You saw what’s under the bed, right? They were the failures of his so-called ‘familiars’. I’ve heard of him mumbling about something like using his scent to make them submit.”

_And he ended up suffocating them._ Nero thought bitterly. 

“Don’t worry, he said we’re not going to end up like they did.” The black cat concluded, her voice blank and emotionless. “Because you arrived. He said he need a black one and a white one to start his ritual.”

Nero was bewildered. “Wh--”

“You see, this man is a maniac. We can’t hold against him.” The cat shook her head, before continuing: “Thanks to you, all of us are going to be killed.”  
Confused, Nero wanted to defend for himself, but her gaze, filled with hate and unspoken rage, stopped him from doing so. However, Nero doubted that if he would die from starvation before that occurred. 

_……Or he could make a run for it._

On second thought, that sounded about right. If he could escape before the insane man got them, the situation could have changed. Maybe after Kyrie and Credo came back from their trip, they could find the evidence of Agnus’s abusing behavior.  
His hope was almost wrecked on the very next day, because Agnus came in and grabbed one of the dogs from the cage, dragging it across the room. They never see it again. The black cat sighed: “I told you. We’re all going to end up like that.”

Nero, selectively blocking her words from his mind, had broke out from the cage again and searched for any chances of escaping. He watched close when the first and second time the door opened, and he found that Agnus couldn’t see properly in the dark. If he could buy more time for all of them, he could possibly escape with the others. Despite the black cat discouraging him from time to time, he dug out all the rings from beneath the bed, scattering them across the floor. 

However, when he wanted to communicate with his roommates, things didn’t get smoothly as he imagined it would be. The other dog was barely sane, and it growled madly at the approaching sith. The black cat was her normal self, but this time she grew slightly aggressive. “You’re getting all of us killed.”

“What should I do then? Sit here and wait for death?” He hissed at her. “I have a home and humans to go to! They must be looking for me!”  
“You really don’t get it, do you?” Annoyed, the cat hissed back. “He only picks those who no longer owns a human. In other words, whatever excuses your humans gave you…… They lied. They only did that to get rid of you, and as soon as this Agnus is informed, you’re halfway into the coffin.”

Refusing to believe in her words, Nero continued his speech. “Listen, I’ll get rid of the lock for you guys tomorrow, right before he intrudes. I’m leaving, and whatever you wanna do is your call. Problem?” 

Nobody opposed. The remaining dog was deprived of the ability to do so, and the other cat had already gave up her hope. 

On the next day, Nero spend most of the day lurking in the dark. He left his cage empty, everything in the room seemed to be dead aside from himself; yet he was waiting, waiting for the footsteps, and the slightest noise of his target entering the room.

Everything went as expected, Agnus yelped and tripped over the consequences of his murdering behavior. However, his collapsing figure blocked the way to the other animal’s cages, although Nero had already unlock the gates, Agnus’s large, clumsy arms kept the two from opening them.  
Nero had no other choices but giving up, heading towards the front door in completely shock and adrenaline, hitting a few furniture in his route but he couldn’t care less-- before he was met with the complicated latch. He had seen this design before: one must pull the latch with their fingers before they could open the door, there’s no way that Nero could do it with his paws. Frustrated, he attempted to jump and apply force to it, but it didn’t move an inch. He started to sweat, when a series of weird, wet noise met his ears. It took him some moment to realize that, for an unclear reason, Agnus unleashed his rage onto one of his unfortunate companions. 

_You’re getting all of us killed._  
She was right, and Nero broke. 

He wasn’t certain if it’s rage, or grief, but something burst inside of him, making him feeling himself growing stronger and more powerful. Before he knew it, he saw a pale hand beneath him, opening the door in a swift move.  
Some parts of Nero was yelling at him to go back and save the others, but the disgusting noise had stopped, instead he heard footsteps approaching. 

As a result, Nero fled. In the middle of his runaway, he noticed that he was running with two legs, and he’s looking at the world on a higher altitude. Looking down, he saw a pair of very human hands, and the puddle of water near his feet shows a young man with short, white hair and blue eyes, his clothes completely soaked by the rain.  
He was a few steps away from the house, for some reason, that murderer did not come after him, but he needed to find somewhere to hide; after all, there’s no telling what might Agnus would do next.  
Since Fortuna was a town located in basin, Agnus living at the border of the town meant his house was on the hills. Lucky for Nero, he could conveniently leave the border and flee into nearby areas. As exhausted as he was, from the fright he just experienced, he managed to mark out a gas station not far away. 

Nero could barely remember details after that, until he was bathing under the cold, white light of the building. His instinct squeezed the last bit of strength out of him, enabling him to find a dry corner before completely collapsing to the ground.

※※※

“So that’s basically everything before I found you.” Nero’s ears twitch at Dante’s voice, deeper and more unrestrained than usual. Something tells him that if available, the domestic man in front of him would love to turn into a feral beast, shredding his abuser to pieces. Nodding silently, Nero notices that they have changed positions, sitting by the dinner table-- he didn’t even remember when had them moved.

“Thanks to you, I think we’ve found the cause of this nightmare.” They both heard an obvious _ding_ coming from the oven, yet nobody reacts. “As you know, Nightmares are the remains of soul, filled with hate and the memory of being tortured, searching for revenge. The black cat comes directly at you, believed that it was your responsibility for its death.”  
“If it was her, then she’s right.” Nero’s tail drops to the floor. “I didn’t help them out as I promised I would.”  
The other man sighs, before giving him a few soothing pets on the forehead. Nero understands that they couldn’t deny if that influenced the outcome, so he appreciates Dante’s unspoken support. “But how did you know it’s not other cats he’d killed before?”

The man scratches his cheek before explaining: “You know I have something to do with this kind of cases, right? About the false worshiping of the supernatural powers. On that day, coincidentally, I was sent to investigate Fortuna for the reports of living sacrifices by the guild. Turns out that it occurred at this Agnus’ house, but when I pulled off…… I saw him.”

“If you arrived after I fled, he must be looking for me.” Nero mumbles, but stops when Dante slowly shakes his head. “He didn’t?”  
“Nobody knows if he did or not, because he couldn’t.” The feral possessiveness adorning his voice send shivers down Nero’s spine. Now the man learns about the issue, he almost feels like Dante is upset about someone else owning him and imprisoning him. “He’s all over…… He was on the doorstep, dead.”

Nero should have been shocked by the fact, but meanwhile he’s squirming under his dangerous, dominating gaze. It’s different from any human he has met before, making him willing to submit and follow his orders in a clearly masochistic way. “Are you saying that it’s the nightmare killing him?” 

“Humans don’t have claws, do they?” The man demonstrates his very human, very desirable fingers towards him. At this point, Nero can’t take it anymore, climbing onto his lap and curling his tail around the human’s wrist, asking for physical contact. The warmth surrounding him casts the haunting fear away from Nero, burying his face in the man’s red T-shirt contently. As much as he likes to stroll around the community on his own, or napping without any disturb, he still craves for a sense of belonging.  
It is not until Dante’s hands lower onto his unguarded abdomen that he panics, gripping them with a little more force than usual. “No…… Please.”  
He begs while avoiding the man’s growls and heated gaze. Not that it feels uncomfortable, but Kyrie used to rub his belly when he lied around her as a fluffy cat, sprawled and satisfied and happy. Knowing that Dante is currently being possessive for whatever reason, he doesn’t want to mention it. 

But the other asks, anyway. And blame human’s untimely instinct. “It’s because of your formal humans, isn’t it?” At this moment, Nero is terrified by the deep, dangerous tone aiming at him. He struggles to free himself, palms pressing against Dante’s shoulders, not understanding why he’s worked up all of a sudden. Is it because of Dante wants to be his human, and his passion has been neglected, unrequited for too long that he refused to hold back any longer, Nero can’t claim that he’s fully unaware of this possibility.

Then again, it’s all because of him. If he didn’t act like a crybaby and stay strong after that incident, then he didn’t need Dante’s help; yet again, if he didn’t decide to stay with any of them, or just let Agnus took his life for whatever fantasy he had to fulfill. “That-- that’s not the case.” He hisses the words out: “Stop being jealous over Kyrie and Credo-- I’m only having a headache because all of you’re too important for me to decide!” 

He feel too many things occurring at the very same moment: his eyes watering with tears, Dante stiffening under him due to the confession. “Of course you hold a high place in my mind, but when I want to give you a place you deserve, there aren’t any. I can’t give up my love for others, that’s why I’m avoiding you in the beginning, since I can’t reciprocate your affection.” Nero sense something on his cheek, reaching out to wipe it off before finding they are tears streaming endlessly down his face. “I thought it was the best if we just stay cool and keep away from each other, but I screwed up. It feels like I’ve never done anything that turns out well--” Nero’s doubt upon himself is cut short by the confused look he got from the man in red, disagreement written across his face. Bewildered, Nero pauses all his movements except occasional, tiny sobs and hiccups popping out from his lips. 

“ ‘Never done anything that turns out well’, are you sure about that?” Questioning him, Dante takes the chance to hold Nero closer, until Nero can feel his heart thrumming underneath the flesh. “You don’t really know how much you affected me, and why I am so fondly after you, do you?”  
As much as Dante is stating out the facts that he’s aware of, Nero never gets into his mind, thus he waits for Dante’s explanation. However, instead of words, he received a kiss on his forehead, innocent and loving. It makes him melt, and for the first time he’s purring weakly in front of Dante, nudging the man’s neck and shoulder with his nose. 

After some moments, the man starts, “When I met you at the gas station, I was sort of distressed, because my brother…… well, he refused to show up as I requested him to. To be honest, I was out of my mind that when standing in front of the vending machine, thinking about something very stupid. But then I saw you piling on the surface, and the rest of that night I was thinking about how to get you outta there, what happened to you and what to do.”  
“But any cat could have--” This time Dante stops him with a finger tracing over the base of his tail, earning a surprised yelp from the cait sith. “That’s cheating! You human doesn’t even have tails!”

His sulking expression makes Dante chuckle. “Yeah, but humans have a more fetal weakness, you know what that is?”  
“They need a toilet instead of a litter box?” Nero asks dumbly, despite he totally knows that couldn’t be the answer. He barely notices that the slight tension from earlier has faded a little, and his fluffy tail is curling at the former stroke it enjoyed. “Just kidding. Human relies on the said emotional power more than siths do, but never realizes the fact. Am I correct?”  
“Exactly. And we need a lot of attention. Therefore, we don’t really care if you befriend a lot of people at the same time-- or someone’s going to feel ignored.”  
Nero blinks. “But I thought you want to be my human.” To put it more exactly, he wants Dante to be his, too.  
Surprisingly, the man shakes his head: “No. I want you to be…… a friend.” For some reason, Nero believes that this is not a truthful answer, but he’ll let that slip away. “That’ll do. Does that settle all matters between us?”

The man assures him: “It does.” Accompanied by a soft ding from the oven. “I’ll go get the puddings, are you going to cling onto me or sit properly for the room service?” 

Nero chose the latter, after having a taste he gets to spend the rest of the afternoon with his new human “friend”. Dante watching his new video about caramel pudding, and Nero curling up in his lap with his fluffy glorious honor. He also leaves his pink toe beans on full display, and gets amused by the way Dante drools at them. There’s no better option for a perfect moment together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/rox_freeze)   
> sorry for the late update, I think I've made a writing plan that is too strict for myself. I may reduce the identical word count and go straight for the plot, not creating too much pressure for myself. Hope you still enjoy.


	6. Lemon Souffle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The grand confession-- Since Dante has insecurities, Nero sorts his feelings out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to change the update schedule a little, because the current one is too hard for me to keep on with. Here's how it's altered:  
> ■ Each update's word count was 5000, now it's 3000, which means it'll take more chapters to end the whole story. The original plan was 50k words, so the estimated chapter number is also changed.  
> And here is what will not be changed:  
> □ The outline remains the same. And I will try my best to complete the story, since I feel the pain when reading discontinued stories.  
> □ The update still come once per month. Consequently, I strongly suggest you subscribe to this work, and wait for the notification whenever I post the new chapter.

Two weeks has passed, Nero and Dante’s relationship finally untangles into a rather transparent, bilateral situation. Superficially, at least.  
Their day usually starts by Nero landing on Dante’s chest, as a cat of course, before the man lifts him up and carries him to the dining table. Then he’ll enjoy the show when Dante uses his spectacular technique to cook breakfast for both of them. As much as Nero would like to lend a hand, he enjoys being an audience.  
When the plates are emptied, Nero will be the one who volunteers to clean them, since the man had complained about “Extra work afterwards”, implying that Dante isn’t devoting when it comes to doing dishes. 

After that, Nero spends all of his daytime in the yard. He has taken over with Dante’s permission, even had him bought shovels and fertilizer to enhance Nero’s work. Dante will check up on him from time to time, handing him wet towels and water bottle. “Needless to say, I’m beside myself with admiration.” He gestures to plenty kinds of herbs, brought back to life by the sith within such a short period of time. Flattered, Nero asks casually: “I’ve heard that occasionally, you’d came and water them.” What he doesn’t tell directly is that, according to the nymphs’ words, someone other than Dante had been taking care of them, until a few years ago that “she” passed away. He doesn’t get to learn more about her identity. Lover? Family? Or both?

Without hesitation, the man answers: “Yeah, it ends up that green isn’t my color.” Not wanting to push too much, Nero decides that he is satisfied, for now. “How about red? I’d like to add some roses to the spare corner.” Nero advises.  
“Go ahead, I have faith in your green fingers-- or should I say toe beans? Anyway, if you need stuff we can go and collect at store.” This time, when Dante faces him with a smirk, those eyes lock on a specific part of his cheek. “There’s dirt sticking to your face.” Explaining, he reaches out to wipe it off. Nero leans into his palm without doubt, purring happily at the contact. 

He also becomes the constant assistant of Dante’s cooking channel, face remain off-screen like Dante does. In this week, some viewers seem to notice those slimer hands preparing coffee, playing silly games with another pair hands in the meantime while the oven functions, big enough to cover them in a single grasp. Of course, he can hide his tail and ears away, temporarily keeping them from startling their spectators. Yet, one day when Nero checks the video they’re going to update, he spots himself facing away from the camera, staring fondly into the oven with both fists curling loosely on his sides. He surely looks like a curious kitty, and he asks why Dante think it’s worth putting into their clip.  
“It’s called fan service.” The man answers, showing him some comments under the very video with a tablet. “The Internet is crazy about your slightest presence, you see? They won’t shut up until they catch a glimpse of you in any updates.”  
“You can possibly prevent that by not doing so.” Nero pouts, but he’s not in the mood to complain. “May I see their comments?”

Instead of a direct answer, Dante pats his laps, covered in smooth, black sweatpants. Getting his message, Nero shrinks into the furball he is and hops into his granted human cushion, curling up on the man’s belly. Using his paw to scroll along their fans’ screaming and praising, Nero has to shoo away fingers that attempt to poke his toe beans from time to time, ignoring frustrated whines from Dante while pretending to pay full attention and being flattered by the Internet. If he maintained in human, Nero would have been as red as the strawberry jam Dante usually makes, especially when he notices a few boys and girls checking him out, in an attitude that’s more than pure friendliness. Luckily, Dante has their passion properly handled. He pins some of their appreciative comments with a like, leaving some off-limiting ones behind. Also he’s got a very positive, supportive fanbase; when sometimes there’s one guy that goes too far and too private questions, they are immediately concerned. Jokes are for humorous convincing, and it usually takes only a few words to cool things down. Nero purrs happily, mostly for Dante’s sake. It must feel good to be accompanied by so much people, kind and caring. 

Said man is nodding off, he can sense Dante gradually switching onto his back, resting his head on the armrest while placing the tablet on his chest. Nero complies into the position, because one of the comments just happened to catch his eyes and he couldn’t move away, pinned at the top by Dante, of course:

You guys look so cute together omg

……Nero isn’t sure what “omg” means, but the subscribers do seem to like him a lot. The other thing that concerns him, is the phrase ”together”.  
About a week ago they had become “friends”, which Nero believed that Dante was, in fact, asking for something else, and it turns out he was. 

On weekdays, Dante either stays at home doing research for recipes, or goes out for teaching culinary lessons. Nero would spend the day with Nico and Griffon, or devote himself in gardening. It was at Monday afternoon, when the trio about to head home that they see Dante’s iconic red car coming at their direction, slowly. Nico turned to Nero, who was staring in confusion as well. “I suppose we all live at the other side of this street?”  
“He must have secretly moved out.” Was his reply. They watched as the car halted, said man getting off without turning off the engine, eyes immediately locking with Nero’s. “No, actually, I think he’s looking for m-”  
His explanation was cut off with surprised meow, lifted onto Dante’s shoulder as he weighed nothing. As a cat he couldn’t blush, so his paws started sweating a little. _Put me down! I’m not some fragile pedigree!_ He yowled.  
Behind him, Griffon laughed: “Oh excuse me Nero, you are a ragdoll, so pedigree of course.” He also heard Nico huffing giggles, if Dante’s grip wasn’t so firm, he might have fell from how sweaty his paws were. “Now go back with your prince charming and be happily ever after, princess. Don’t let our presence ruin--” He let out a strangled quack when Dante gripped him with his spare hand, casually throwing the bird aside like a tremendous baseball, _“--your graceful night!”_  
Nero needed no reassurance to be certain about Dante’s expression: the possessive face, again. He could sense something dominating and protective in the man’s aura, holding him closer as if Griffon was prying Nero and Dante’s private time. “Care for a ride, you guys?” Nero bet Dante didn’t even convinced himself that he wanted to.  
Consequently, the two (one of them absent at the moment) politely refused. Nero was put in the backseat, and minutes later they’re in the garage. At night, he noticed that Dante never stepped out of his eyesight, except while showering; but when Nero’s out of the bathroom, Dante was right at the door, pretending to be messing with his phone.  
They shared bed on a regular basis since Nero's confession about his past, and after Dante showing his insecurities for the whole evening and night, Nero decided he would spare his human friend and keep him accompanied. 

After that, he had spend some time connecting the dots, about Dante’s behavior of course. First of all, Dante lives alone, but he mentioned that he had a brother. And Nero remembered he’s the reason Dante went to Fortuna alone: his brother suddenly turned up his request. Could this be implying that their relationship was not going too well? The next thing that bothered Nero was the man being extremely possessive when it came to him. At the beginning he only thought it was because Dante loved cats, but usually those who love cats shared the same affection to dogs, birds, etc.. He would have to pay attention, see if he can help; after all, he cared about Dante, as much as the realization made him blush a little. 

Dante is three minutes away from completely passing out, to prevent that Nero directly crushes his sleep under his human weight. “Not so soon, Dante.” His landlord mumbles a little, but doesn’t complain. “What? Is something burning?” Hearing this, Nero couldn’t help but smirk at his instinctive thoughts that flies to nothing but the kitchen. Frowning, Dante tries to get up with Nero on top, only to be stopped by the tablet pressed into his palms. “Read this.” Nero requests.  
“Before I do, there really isn’t any cookie in danger?”  
“None.” Nero punches him lightly in the shoulder, smiling when he detects a hint of slyness from the corner of those sky blue eyes. “You’ve seen this comment, right? About how this guy thinks we look cute together and bunch of others screaming the same thing underneath?” 

“Of course, I’m the one who pinned it after all.” The man replies before realization flashes across his face, as if remembering something important: “Speak of which, they gives this idea of opening a new video section-- making coffee and tea, probably.”  
Nero believes that his eyes must be sparkling so bright that Dante can see stars shining in them. “So it’s happening? Can’t believe you’ve managed to set it up so soon.”  
“They’ve been asking to sponsor like, forever.” Dante grins, giving Nero a few strokes on his forehead. The sith purrs and head bumps in response, earning a few more petting from the human’s warm hands. “I only need a good coffee maker like you, and everything is clicked together.” 

To be frank, Nero isn’t the good coffee maker, it was Kyrie and Credo. He watched the two making coffee for residents of Fortuna every single day, and Nero was a fast learner. “If only you can meet them in person, you’ll be stunned by how qualified Credo’s coffee is.” He smiles, inevitably a little sad when thinking about his humans oversea. “They’ll never see how much I’ve learned from them, and how much I miss them.”  
He hears a soft chuckle, then shivers at fingers tracing along his back, heat burning through his T-shirt and directly into Nero’s skin. “It’s too early to reach your conclusion. Not so soon, Nero.” 

The younger pouts at his teasing words being stolen, but Dante remains undaunted by his threat. “Internet is an amazing thing. For some reason, the more you believe that somebody is done with you, the more likely you’d come across each other…… in both good and bad terms, of course.” His eyes darts away to peek at the door, then back at a very worried, very horrified Nero, and Dante’s face immediately goes soft. “Don’t worry, no one was physically hurt. It was just a hater who tried to blackmail me.” He strokes Nero’s long, fluffy tail, which burst into a fluffy duster at the shock.  
“On the day you opened homemade jelly pre-order, according to your neighbor’s collie.” Nero’s ears also fall back, now twitching slowly as Dante spares another hand to rub at them. “What about the good term?” He asks as his body melts, leaning into Dante’s embrace. They’ve grown used to this intimacy, since Nero has this bad habit of suddenly turning into human whenever nature calls and he wakes from their afternoon nap, sometimes on Dante and sometimes not-- then Nero comes back, too lazy to transform again, falling asleep directly on the other man’s chest. Later on, he just crawls onto Dante whenever he pleases; he’s a cat, after all.  
When his shoulder meets the other man’s, the hand petting his tail tenses for a moment. Looking up, Nero isn’t sure what’s wrong with his behavior, but the action resumes and Dante is already speaking: “Your humans, they make coffee too, right? They probably watch coffee making videos as well. Even if they don’t, the coffee brand will launch our collaboration announcement, they’d hear our names.”  
On first look, this sounds reasonable, even wonderful to Nero’s ears; However, Dante’s body language sends the opposite message. If he was gently petting Nero on the back a few moments ago, now his palm is resting firmly near his neck, the other hand buried in his short hair. 

The fact is crystal clear: Dante, the man who has the gut to confront, even fired a bullet directly through a Nightmare, gets nervous at the thought of Nero meeting his humans. With sufficient amount of intelligence to provoke Griffon, something clicks in the sith’s brain. Yet, he decides to keep this to himself for a few more moments, until the timing is right. “Sounds good to me. All I have to come up with is how I turned into a man, then it’s all settled.” He jests.

Fingers roam onto the back of his neck, the gesture assuring Nero’s idea further. “Yeah. Everything will be fine.” To him, it feels like Dante is comforting nobody but himself, and this thought, in fact, makes his heart ache. If he left ignorantly without considering the man’s feelings, how may Dante react? Nero doesn’t dare to think.  
While he’s musing Dante goes on, “Although they are currently abroad, there is a chance that they’d come back after school is finished. You can go visit them whenever you like-- or you can move in with them, it depends. I bet they’d want to spend some time with you after being separated for so long.” Nero notices despite how calm Dante tries to pretend, he won’t look into Nero’s baby blue eyes, hiding his sky blue ones behind long, sliver bangs. It’s obvious, very obvious that the man isn’t telling the truth; and Nero decides it’s time to push a little. “What about you?”

This time Dante overreacts. He suddenly sits up, while Nero, surprised, trying to seek for balance by placing both hands on his broad shoulder, straddling the man’s lap in process. Nero’s tail brushed across Dante’s knees, feeling how tense his muscles are. “What about my what?” The red man asks, now that he’s staring into Nero’s depths of soul, the sith regrets his wish to see Dante’s eyes earlier. They are not sky anymore, but so electric and fierce that Nero couldn’t handle; what’s worse, his hand has fully grasped Nero’s sensitive, vulnerable back neck, plain body language asking for him to submit. Nero feels himself giving in, blood thrumming in his ears and a foreign urge that has him focus on Dante’s moving lips. 

“About you,” He manages to pronounce it correctly without trembling too much. “I-I don’t want to leave you alone……in this house. You’ll be lonely without me, won’t you?” He tries to form a confident smirk, but it declines into a soothing smile in the end, probably a little too lovely to fit his character. Still, he feels the man relaxes around him, although not letting go of his neck. “Don’t hide your crappy feelings away, Dante, I can tell.”  
The tablet is completely forgotten behind them, playing the video where Dante and Nero appearing on the screen together-- one of them must have accidentally pressed play while switching positions. Nero underestimated how tough the batter could have been and applied too less strength, thus had a little trouble mixing it; seeing this, Dante made a gesture( and mouthed ‘let me’ outside of the camera) and came over to handle it. The single thought of Dante being there for him when he’s in trouble makes Nero’s heart flutter, and, to be honest…… “I don’t want to leave you, too.” He mutters under his breath, which makes no difference with saying out loud since they are close to each other.  
Dante’s eyes widen at his confession, but Nero is far from over. “Is this what you call a different relationship other than being my human? Is this being a friend feel like?” Because Nero suddenly has this urge to press his mouth against Dante’s, if he doesn’t make any reply then he’s gonna break and-- Dante’s face leaves him, instead he is drowned in his scent. “Dante?” He calls out. It takes Nero a moment to realize that the man is burying in his neck, nuzzling quietly. Thanks to Nero’s superior hearing, he is able to catch the soft whispering that almost escape from his ears: “No. I don’t…… I don’t want to be alone. Never again.”  
He has never heard Dante being so weak, as if Nero let go of him now, he would shatter into pieces. “I won’t, Dante. I promise.” Still remembering how promises matter to creatures like him, Nero reassures the man with the most significant vow he could manage to think of. He has many, many questions to ask, but aside from anything, Dante comes first. It feels like forever, patting the older man on the shoulder and purring soothingly, until a thought hit him out of nowhere. 

He’d only hear this phrase in television comedies, which Kyrie always complains about being “unrealistic”, but gives Nero an approach to the concept anyway. Human tends to develop a very intimate feeling with people they trust, the feeling of “Love”, if he remembers correctly. Thinking back, he remembers Dante kissing him on the forehead, hugging him close, and those eyes longing for him since the day he arrived in this house. Also, Nero climbing into Dante’s embrace when he needed comfort, the fluttering contentment he felt whenever Dante pet his fluffy cat ears or human hair. Only at this moment does he think of the possibility, that maybe they had been in love for oh so long. And Kyrie is right-- this is so ridiculous. So stupid and unrealistic, but he feels happy as hell, that Nero couldn’t help but chuckles. 

Next to him, Dante lets out a confused noise. “Is something burning?”  
“No, just found something I should’ve learned earlier.” He pulled away to look directly into Dante’s eyes, a little surprised to see them glistening with tears. “Can’t believe I’m the thick skull in all of this-- Dante, I think I’m in love with you.” As prove his determination, his tail wraps around Dante’s thigh. The man’s expression is a combination of joy and unbelieving, before he staggers, “Nero, are you sure--”  
In response, Nero leans in so their forehead touch each other’s. “You gave me a kiss not long ago, right at here. And yeah, I’m a cait sith who just started to learn about human culture, but I’m not stupid-- I want to stay with you, I like crashing you under my butt, I’m fond of your fingers…… and something in my head is telling me to kiss you. If these isn’t proving anything, then I’m worried that you’re as thick-skulled as I was.” He thought the last part must raise something out of him, but instead, Dante is still dumbfounded. Nero, on the other hand, is reminded of last time: when he was about to mention something that tugged on Dante’s heart string, Dante changed the topic. If he wait until the man speaks up, maybe he’d play the same trick; can’t let that happen.

Besides, he really, _really_ wants to kiss him. “You know what? “ he announces, plucking up his courage, “ Fuck it.” With that, Nero closes the distance between their lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a [twitter](https://twitter.com/rox_freeze). Feel free to drop by, also you can receive update notifications either from twitter or subscribe to this work! See you next time!


	7. Mont Blanc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the kiss, instead of more drama comes some angst and pure fluff.

At first Nero thought he’s going to kiss Dante deeply like some stupid romance comedy do, maybe rising a response out of the other man and the scene would be more heated. However, his fantasies ends with a tiny peck on Dante’s lips, followed by mad blushing all over their face.   
While the feeling of cheeks burning isn’t a stranger to Nero, he’d never seen Dante being shy before. His cheeks turn into a bright shade of pink, eyes wide, even his neck is lightened up with a hint of flush. Apart from all of this, he still looks astounding; Nero wonders if Dante sees him in the same way, hopefully he does. 

Since they parted, the other man seems to be lost while searching for words; his mouth keeps forming different vowels and consonants, but none was properly spoken. While growing a little worried about breaking this human, Nero is slightly swelled with pride because it is him that makes this attractive man flustered. “Cat had your tongue?” He jests, then realizes that it’s literally the cause of Dante’s silence rather than a joke.   
Despite all of this, when the man finally speaks up, he sounds very insecure. As if it was Dante accidentally kissed the wrong person at a crowded party: “No…… it’s not like that.” He sighs into the empty space in front of Nero’s nose, then focuses his gaze on the sith’s face. Nero assumes that he is going to express his feelings, either horrified or embarrassed-- but Dante’s eyes immediately turns away. Nero’s tail taps lightly against the sofa, confused. He doesn’t smell the aggressive hormones humans make when they’re angry, so Dante is not mad at the whole confession; instead, he senses fear.   
His mind flies back to when his human form first being revealed to Dante. Leaning against the front door, Dante was upset about the fact that he was trying to get away, and the next day he asked Nero to promise for returning. At first Nero thought Dante was only afraid of Nero leaving him, but the more intimate their relationship gets, the man seems to become more unsettled. _It’s not about Nero, it’s about something else from his past,_ a cool voice in his head states his conclusion, a voice he has heard before but can’t lay his fingers on it.   
Siths have some telepathy skills that can contact their companions immediately, it’s especially useful for domestic cats that usually stay at their human’s house, so they don’t need to go out and find their friends all the time, leaving their humans worried at home. Sometimes their link with Nature would also reveal some secrets, and this ability is named by human as prophecy. However, they are mostly shattered pieces such as a distant voice, a foreign word or some whispers, siths still need to interpret this voice with their own knowledge. He decides to leave this for later, right now he is more concerned about the man in front of him. “Dante?” Slowly, he moves his knees to lean in closer, when the other extends his arms and pulls Nero near, holding him tight. His attempt to form a question failed from warm breathing on his sensitive neck, the man buries his face into Nero’s skin. 

Shivering, Nero’s tail curls around Dante’s waist, patting soothingly. He feels the other’s body jerks at the touch, before heating up a few more notches-- either out of shyness or content, Dante nuzzles against him, slightly purring. A few minutes later he lets go of the smaller man, still flushed, and it’s the most seductive thing Nero has ever witnessed since he began contacting with humans. “Thank you, Nero.” He sighs with visible fondness all over his face. 

Nero is happy that he’s alright, but there’s another question he needs to press. “So……” He starts carefully. “What do you think?”   
He doesn’t expect it when Dante gets even redder, and he thinks he finally finds out the reason behind those red suit, red sheets, mattress and endless craving for strawberries. “I, ah…… didn’t see that coming. Thought I’m going through some one-sided pining, and I’m almost at ease with it. Luckily, you bring this up when that’s about to happen.”  
The single thought of Dante left heartbroken and unrelinquished makes Nero’s chest ache. Just as Dante lets him open up to his past, Nero wants to learn more about him, maybe helping him with anything that haunts Dante in return. But he won’t push, not until Dante is comfortable to bring it up; now he’s satisfied with leaning against him, silently enjoying their intimacy. 

※※※

“Looks like spaghetti to me.” Nero comments.   
“Come’on, you know it’s not like that.” Dante shushes, admiring the perfect frosting on the dessert he made. “When I was testing the frost you didn’t say anything about it.”  
Nero purrs victoriously, getting a little louder when Dante rubs his forehead gently. He knows when Dante is about to spoil him and let him win the mouthy fights. Before he could start anything else, Nero sees a large, sapphire shadow looming over the window. “Griffon’s here.” He declares, hurrying into the yard.

After Nero’s confession, the first rose bud in his garden is blooming, and Nero has spent more and more strength on taking care of it-- especially when he sees its color, crimson and bright that makes him think of Dante. It’ll make a great gift, maybe he’d be able to see Dante all flushed again-- his thought was interrupted by a purposefully, badly sang version of Heidenröslein. Frowning, he turns around to face this horrible singer. “Griffon, if I wasn’t saved by Dante and still wanders on the street, you’d be a great meal to fill my stomach.”  
“Ha! You won’t be eating me if you’ve lived with Dante.” The bird howls madly, laughing his ass off on the fence. “Especially when you have such a picky mouth in the beginning.”  
“What brings you here?” Nero asks, today isn’t their patrol day, nor is it the time they’d go out. The nightmare they’d been searching for, on the other hand, has veiled its existence after Dante intervened between Nero and its battle. As much as he’s appreciated, in one of their patrols V showed up to explain that was allowed only because it was one of those “extreme circumstances”. “Deny nightmares when they are tracking their targets is a dangerous move,” He said with a disproportionate ease, “which might evoke their anger further. The best method is to end it where it begins.”  
“May I ask why could Dante go unharmed after shooting it right in the shoulder?” Nero asked. By the time he started to suspect Dante wasn’t just a random human who runs a Youtube channel that makes people’s mouth water. “According to your statements, the only creature that can smack it without pissing it off is me.”   
“There are two. First: he has a strong link to you, connected in the form of power. The second one is a secret that not many people realize; I got that from Vergil, once he’s tipsy and let that out.” V smirks, opening a drawer on his desk for Griffon to snatch a new bag of baked seeds. “They are the sons of Sparda, a well-known alchemist who retired few years ago. A famous chef in human society, too.” 

“His chocolate cake are the best, V sulked for like two days after Sparda said he’s not doing it any- Hey give it back!” Nero sits back on the lawn, watched Griffon blindly chasing after V’s slim arms, tossing the bird’s snack back and forth like a professional juggler. “As unfortunate as I can’t enjoy his cake anymore, Dante makes marvelous Mont Blanc with fresh chestnuts. Only a stubborn man gives up the whole forest for one withering tree.” Finally, the bag flew out of V’s fingers, caught in midair accompanied by Griffon’s joyful squeal. “His sons, Dante and Vergil, has been gifted with Sparda’s talent: natural senses for medicine and culinary, hands born for elaborate handicraft, and most importantly, the power of so-called magic.” Obviously V wasn’t a fan of using the human phrase “magic”, from the disapproving look and tapping fingers on his cane. “Dante surpassed this nightmare with brute force, and succeed in scaring it away, temporarily.”   
“So the next time this nightmare comes out and faces Dante, it’ll know that he’s a difficult one, and come up with other ways to kick our asses?” Nero sort of understood. When he first encountered this evil, it learned his tactics quickly, not mentioning Nero is the kind who compares strength directly with his opponents. Most of his fighting skills are based on that, so when it gets stronger he inevitably loses.

“Exactly.” V replied. Griffon had completely thrust his beak into the foiled bag, trying to get the remained seeds out. “Once it recovers from the damage, it would return with even more force. We should prepare ourselves.”  
“Yeah.” Nero answered. But he had absolutely no idea how to do that. 

With the bird impatiently tilting his head in front of him, he eventually recalls that Griffon is here for V’s pre-ordered dessert. “I’ll go look for him.” Nero blurts, rushing inside. But instead of Dante working in the dining area, he is nowhere in sight. Instead, Nero hears the phone ringing, on and on and on, but he knows Dante is somewhere in this house. Why isn’t he answering?   
Instinctively, Nero reaches for the source of noise, picking it up. “Hello? Are you looking for--”

He’s met with a stern _click_. Apparently, when the guy on the other side realizes that he isn’t the man in question, they immediately gives up. Confused, Nero looks around to see a packed dessert box, with a capitalized “V” written over it, and an ugly scribble of Griffon. He decides to hand this over first, then he’ll look for Dante. Nero returns to the internal space, only to hear water running in the shower. “Dante?” 

Something’s off, Nero is sure. Dante never washes himself after cooking, but rather enjoy a cup of milk tea with either cake or cookies he’d made. After they started advertising for the coffee brand, Nero started making coffee from time to time, both find themselves indulging in the afternoon tea section. Worried, he knocks on the door to bathroom--

“Come in.” 

What? Nero blinks, before getting furiously red at the meaning behind Dante’s words, tired tone and slurring words particularly ignored. _Is he inviting me into the bath? Do I need to strip or something?_

Before he decides to reach for his T-shirt, the man sighs, re-phrasing. “Wait, that came out wrong. What I’m trying to say is I forgot to bring a towel……please find one and hand it in.”   
Oh. While Nero relaxes, he is also aware that he was thinking about getting skin contact with Dante. Is this how human love works? Partially, maybe. He grabs a clean, long towel that could cover a man’s whole body, opening the door to find the man in question lying in the tub. 

_Seems like “the mystery of unanswered phone” is solved._ Nero thinks to himself, approaching without thinking. “Got sweaty? Or you spilled something all over yourself again?” The rectangle-shaped tub leaves some space for placing shampoo or soap on the edge, Nero, however, follows his cat instinct and sits down at that place rightfully.   
“I just feel like doing so.” The man replies, stretching his arms and long, slim legs in warm water. “Don’t worry, I won’t drag you in.” He smiles when noticing Nero’s gaze turns a little alarmed at the hands dangerously close to his arm, using his tail to halfheartedly beats Dante’s fingers away. “There’s a call. I picked it up, but Mr. or Mrs. Picky doesn’t wanna speak with me. Probably coming for you, and it’s personal stuff.”  
Instead of a smug answer or smile, Dante only closes his eyes and huffs. Nero eyes him carefully, thumb gently pressing against his nose: Either the man is too lazy to reply, or he doesn’t want to. If the real reason is the latter, then he is a little curious about this mysterious caller. However, seems like Dante isn’t in the mood to explain. “Did Griffon come and get his treat?”

“Yep.” Nero frowns at the way Dante’s jaw tightens, despite it seems like Dante thought he’d got all his reactions well-covered. “Good. Do you remember Patty? Tomorrow she’ll be here. If I’m occupied then you’ll have to help me take care of her.” There are shadows lurking in his eyes again, forcing any light out of them while tugging Nero’s chest and make it hurt. “I’ll do it.” He answers.  
The other man studies him for a while, before leaning closer: “Oddly obedient today, aren’t you? Thought you’d make some smart-ass comment about me bossing you around.”  
He watches Dante closely, seeing his shoulder stiffens from time to time, subtly avoiding Nero’s worried gaze whenever their eyes meet. As more and more meaningless chit-chats are pulled out from Dante’s mouth, something in Nero’s head is pleading for him to hold Dante as tightly as possible, until he melts and let whatever is making him upset leave his body. 

Then again, Nero’s memory flies back to the first time they met at a gas station. Although being numb from the cold and panicked beyond awareness, when Dante held him into his embrace, he felt his heart beating, as if telling him it was still strong and determined to live. If that’s what Dante had done to him, he wants to return the favor-- moreover, he wants to love him. And they have missed each other for almost three months, before reuniting here. He doesn’t want to waste more time. Hesitating, Nero makes a bold move by calling out, interrupting Dante’s meaningless babbling about strawberries he bought yesterday: “Hey, Dante. You know I’m a cat right? I can feel it when you get nervous.”

“Mm-hmm.” His tail swirls at the other man’s vague reaction: Dante is still playing dead. Now a little irritated at the lame excuse he’d got, Nero reaches out to him. Before Dante could ask, his fingers rest themselves on Dante’s naked shoulder, lightly squeezing to prove how stiffen he is.   
There’s a pause before Dante ducks his head, refusing to look at him as a silent agreement. Instead of saying anything to have the man distracted and flee from current topic, Nero’s fingers starts tracing on his skin, gently stroking his sore muscle; this is a chance to let him loose for a bit, not mentioning how much tension Dante’s body got from all of this. This time, he decides to add a little force, at least to let him speak something and relive the least amount of pressure.   
For some moments the only audible sound is occasional dripping from the faucet, before the other man finally yields, leaning back to the white surface of the tub. “Why are you asking?” The man starts in a tired tone Nero has never heard from him, “not that I mind-- but it’s a thing that happened a long time ago. Even before the first time you’d seen me.”   
“I’m not sure why it took me so long to notice, maybe because of my own issue.” His hand lift a little higher, into the soft, wet strands of hair and slowly combs them with his fingertips. “That’s also one of the reasons I want to know about what’s so bothering: you helped me with my problems. And, and I……” _Come on, Nero, it was easy when you came up with all these righteous and romantic lines in your head._ He curses himself.   
Unfortunately, Dante already knows where his monologue is going. “You’re trying to say ‘I love you’, right?” His smug smile is back, and he makes a reckless move that almost startles Nero-- he leans impossibly close and rests his head on Nero’s lap, covered by the clean towel he’d brought in so his shorts doesn’t get wet, at least. “What the hell, Dante!” He yelps, but when Dante nuzzles closer he only mews in protest, and his tail betrays him further by curling around his shoulder, not even caring that Dante’s skin is all wet from the water. “Answer me, Nero.” He presses on. “What were you trying to say?”  
It’s ridiculous that the more he loves this man, the harder it is to express himself, Nero thinks as he’s all flustered, but he couldn’t wiggle away from a man literally crushing half of his weight on his lap, so the sith has no choice but to face him. “I said I love you. And that’s why I’m worried and cares so much-- are you happy?” 

Instead of replying, Dante only smiles at him, pointing at his shoulders. “Look.” He seems so genuine that Nero really turns to look at himself. Behind them is a mirror, which reflects Nero and Dante, along with two beams of blue light resting on Nero’s back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a [twitter](https://twitter.com/rox_freeze).   
> If you like this work please subscribe and receive notifications when I update! It takes me a lot of time to come up with one chapter bc I'm not very familiar with English D:

**Author's Note:**

> So Nero is basically a ball of floof who is crazy about cherry soda, and he licks his nose whenever he's confused. And Dante is just an old hot man that forgets to do his laundry from time to time.  
> This is going to be really stupidly fun, I think.  
> Also, I have a [twitter](https://twitter.com/rox_freeze). Feel free to drop by and chat.


End file.
